Timing Is Everything
by livinglife
Summary: Sequel to Swimming In The Time Stream. Danny finally thinks that his life is taking a turn for the better when Clockwork gives him disturbing news. Doom is back and is ruining Danny's future. But is there more to the plot than meets the eye? Chapter 17 up
1. Bad News

_**After my last story, Swimming In The Time Stream, I had lots of reviews asking for a sequel. I was not expecting that at all, but when I went back and read through my last two chapters I realized that I had set myself up for another story. To me, sequels are often worse than the first story, but my hope is that this will be just as good if not better than the original. This starts a few minutes after chapter 22 left off.**_

After I had left Sam at her house with a goodbye kiss, (I'll never get tired of those) I walked back to my house with a smile on my lips. My life finally had started to take a turn for the better. Sam was my girlfriend, I had saved the world, and I had thoroughly confused Vlad. Maybe he would leave me alone for a few days.

My house was quiet when I walked in, and I was glad, because now I could sneak up to my room without my parents asking me where I had been. But the farther I entered the house, the more worried I became. The silence was spooky and I felt a chill go down my spine. A few seconds later I realized that the chill was caused by the blue smoke rising from my mouth.

I changed into my ghost form and noticed that the colors had returned to normal. There was a noise behind me and when I turned I came face to face with Clockwork. I sighed and knew that if Clockwork was here, then he had bad news. What could have happened since I had talked with him a few hours ago?

To my surprise Clockwork looked panicked. Usually he just looked bored. My eyes widened in realization. Something had happened with time that was out of Clockwork's control.

"Danny" he said, and I noticed the urgency in his voice, "Something is happening to your dark half. He wants to speak with you immediately." Before I could reply I was in Clockworks castle in the Ghost Zone.

Clockwork walked over to a portal I hadn't seen before. I followed him and watched as Clockwork reached inside the open portal and pulled out the Fenton Thermos that held Evil Dan. Then he turned around and gave the thermos to me.

I stared at it and saw several dents in the silver metal. Then I heard an evil laugh from the depths of the container. "Well Danny, it seems as though fate has brought us together again." Evil Dan's voice was smooth but underneath I could hear a hint of insanity. "I knew it was you when I felt your heroic aura." He laughed again, and this time it sounded more crazy than evil.

Clockwork tapped the thermos with his finger and the laughing was cut off. He spoke and now I could hear the definite tones of fear. "Your evil future is becoming insane." He said. "I am the master of all time and I know that this should _not_ be occurring" he rubbed his head and stared at me like he was worried for my sanity too.

"Something or someone is causing a disturbance in time, but whatever it is I do not know. They are creating the disturbances from outside of time, and are therefore out of my control." He continued giving me that strange look and then took the thermos from my hands.

As soon as he set it back into the portal the portal closed. Clockwork began speaking in a quiet voice and I had to lean closer to hear it. "I'm afraid that the disturbance occurred in the future, but is slowly working its way back to you. Like ripples. Observe." Clockwork waved his hand and a portal opened.

I watched as a tall, thin, slightly muscular man with black hair paced back and forth muttering to himself. He continued walking and stared around the empty room with wild insane eyes. He shouted something intelligible.

The portal closed and I looked at Clockwork. "He has gone insane." He said. "And he is your future self." I gasped in shock at the thought of going crazy and screaming out random things. That didn't sound good at all. "This morning your future was happy and normal, but it suddenly turned into that."

Clockwork frowned. "Whoever is destroying your future is slowly moving towards the present. Soon you will also become insane." My jaw dropped and I thought that if my eyes widened any more they would fall out. Once again I had to save someone, only this time it was myself.

Sympathy filled Clockwork's eyes. "If I could tell you the future I would. But I'm afraid that it is changing and telling it to you would not ease your mind. I have been able to pinpoint the location of the being, but it confuses me."

I said nothing and Clockwork continued. "The being is in a pit that is outside of time. The area above the pit is flat except for one small bump. Does this mean anything to you?" I thought for a moment and then slapped my hand to my head. Kansas was back to haunt me, and so was Doom.

That also meant that now I had to go back to the other world. "Clockwork," I said and he blinked at the sound of my voice after my long silence. "I'm going to have to travel to the other world again. This time I won't have anyone to help me. What am I going to do?"

To my surprise Clockwork smiled. "The same friend who helped you defeat Doom once is still there. I did not erase Vlad Masters memory." At first it seemed too good to be true, but Clockwork never lied. I couldn't help but smile at the thought of seeing Vlad again. "I must warn you," he said, and all I could think was 'what now', "The worlds are separate, and now you will meet yourself in the other world if you are not carefull."

I looked at Clockwork and he waved his hand again. The castle around me faded into blackness and I found myself in the Kansas field I had seen twice before. A farmer, _the_ farmer, stared at me and I realized I was still in my ghost form.

"Dang." He said in his country way. "I'm gonna have to tell my therapist that I'm having different nightmares now." He walked away and I let out a sigh of relief. Then I took off into the sky and flew towards Amity Park, several states away.

I was exhausted by the time I landed in front of my house in this universe. The Masters Works sign, which had given me a shock before, lifted my spirits. I turned intangible and invisible and went inside.

As soon as I entered the house I nearly walked into myself. Other world Danny stood in front of me looking bored as his mother, my other world mother, tied a tie around his neck. "Now sweetie, I know you hate wearing ties but it's good to make a nice first impression on people."

"But Mom," my other self protested, "She's a Goth. It's not like I'm going out with Paulina again." My head hurt as I tried to figure out the life of this Danny but I decided that things like his love life should be left alone. I continued walking through the house in search of Vlad.

Jazz was sitting in the kitchen doing homework. At first it seemed normal but then I remembered that this was the Jazz that had skipped school to go ghost hunting. Then I noticed the gun by her foot and became even more confused.

At that moment Vlad walked into the kitchen and smiled at Jazz. "I'm glad you started going back to school Jazz." He said, and after hearing the Vlad of my worlds evil voice, this Vlad's voice sounded extremely happy.

Jazz smiled and said, "As long as you let me go ghost hunting after words I'll go to school." I shook my head and watched Vlad leave the room and head towards the stairs. I flew up them and changed back just as he began to climb the steps.

Vlad looked up and saw me standing at the top of the stairs. "Hello Danny, I thought you were going to meet that girl at school. When did you change back into your normal clothes?" I stared at him and realized that he thought I was his son.

I looked around to make sure the coast was clear and said, "Vlad it's me!" I changed into my ghost form and I watched as surprise followed by a smile formed on his face. He ran up the stairs and pulled me into a fatherly hug.

"Welcome back Danny Phantom." he said. And I thought I heard him humming.


	2. Glimpses Of Insanity

Vlad stepped back and said, "I thought that Clockwork had sent you back to your own world and erased your memory. What are you doing back here so soon?" I sighed and told Vlad the whole story, and by the end he looked both angry and terrified.

"Doom is back? That's terrible! We must stop him." He looked down at me and his face softened. "Don't worry Danny. I swear I won't let him turn you insane." He said, and his voice calmed me down a bit.

I followed Vlad as he walked past me and into his bedroom, talking all the way. "In this world you are just starting to become friends with that Sam girl you had to save. How did that go by the way?"

The memory of what Jack had said came back. _'Unfortunately my life here was affected by the choices you made over in your own dimension.' _I looked at Vlad and smiled at the thought of Sam. "Yes I saved her, and we're dating now." Vlad started laughing.

"Now I owe Maddie ten dollars." Vlad had been standing in his closet looking for something on the wall, and for a split second I was afraid that he had become crazy from Doom's disturbances in time.

Then Vlad pulled out a drawer that was nearly invisible from the outside and inside of the closet. From that he removed a small gun. It was the same gun that he had used to send Doom into the pit the last time we fought him.

He carefully held the gun and left the room. Then he asked me to turn invisible in case the other me was still here. We snuck through the house and were almost out when Jazz called to us. "Dad, is that a ghost gun behind your back? Where are you going?"

Since this Jazz had no memory of what had happened to her during my last visit, she didn't know that I was from a different universe and a half ghost. In fact, she didn't know I existed at all. Vlad looked pale and he said, "Jazz, now is not the time or the place to be asking questions. I really have to be going." He turned and walked out the door and I floated silently behind him.

Flying from Kansas to here was not easy, so flying from here to Kansas would have been impossible. The same silver minivan that we had ridden in to go to the reunion was parked out front, and I sat in the front seat as Vlad started it up. I became visible and changed back to normal.

Suddenly something cold and metallic was pressed against my neck. I let out a small gasp and Vlad glanced at me while he was driving. We skidded to a halt, and I heard a menacing voice whisper in my ear.

"Get out of Danny right now ghost or I'll shoot." Vlad turned around in his seat and grabbed the weapon away from whoever was threatening me. In his hands I recognized the gun I had seen by Jazz's foot. Now that the gun was gone I also turned and saw a very angry looking Jazz.

"Dad! Give me the gun right now! Can't you see that Danny is being overshadowed?" She tried to grab the gun again but Vlad held it away from her. Jazz pulled out a much smaller gun from the belt around her waist and I turned invisible to avoid being shot.

Vlad looked very angry. "Jazz, how many times am I going to have to tell you to trust me?" He motioned with one hand towards where I was floating invisibly. "Your brother is not being overshadowed by a ghost. In fact I don't think your brother even believes ghosts exist."

Jazz still kept the gun pointed in my direction. "Then why was there a ghost sitting next to you that changed into Danny? Why is my brother invisible?"

"Because the Danny next to me is not your brother." Vlad said a little too calmly. "He is from another dimension and he has asked me for my help, and you seem bent on destroying every ghost whether they're good or not." Jazz opened her mouth as if to say something but couldn't.

I certainly was speechless. It was so weird seeing Jazz being lectured because she hunted ghosts. Usually it was the other way around in my world. Jazz had lowered the gun, but I stayed invisible just in case she was still angry.

The van was silent for several minutes. Finally Vlad cleared his throat and said, "Jazz, if you want to you can come with me and Danny. The other choice is to walk the few blocks back to our house. Either way it doesn't matter, but Danny and I need to get going."

Jazz slumped back in her seat. She mumbled something that sounded like "I'm staying" and then Vlad started driving again. For several minutes I stayed invisible and waited to see what Jazz would do. Finally I felt it was safe enough and entered the visible world.

A loud thump came from behind me and I turned and saw that Jazz had jumped up and smacked her head against the ceiling. She sat back down grumpily and I heard her mutter, "Stupid ghost powers." This was going to be a long trip.

After an extremely long expanse of time during which I sat staring ahead in a coma, Jazz kept saying rude things about me under her breath, and Vlad kept trying to make conversation and keep the fact that the longer it took us to stop Doom the closer to insanity I became out of my mind, and usually ending up making it worse, we arrived in the field in Kansas. That is a long sentence.

We got out of the minivan and I felt my legs turn to mush under me. Several hours non-stop in a car can do that. Jazz was glaring at me and I carefully made sure Vlad was in between us just in case she had anymore guns.

Just like last time the horizon was flat except for the tiny bump that had been created when the abyss closed up around Doom. There was a large crowd around the hill, and I wondered what they would do if they saw a mountain.

My thoughts were interrupted by my ghost sense. We were about ten feet from the crowd, and I looked around for the ghost. Bright red hair caught my eye, and Spectra turned around. She stared at me with hate filled eyes, and I kind of regretted saving her from a lifetime of mindless slavery and then letting Clockwork make everyone forget that.

Jazz and Vlad were talking about something related to how we were going to get to Doom, and I silently walked around to the back of the minivan. Two rings formed around me and I flew up into the air.

Spectra was slowly walking towards Jazz and Vlad. I dived down and hit her with an ecto-blast. She was thrown backwards into the crowd, and I heard screams from everyone as they realized what was going on. Spectra stood up just in time for me to grab her.

I flew towards a more remote area, (basically anywhere within a hundred mile radius) and dropped Spectra, expecting that she would fly up and fight back. Instead she let herself fall until two seconds before she hit the ground. Then she simply stood still and started yelling taunts at me.

"Is that the best you can do? Your creepy little powers are worse than last time loser. Is it because you're afraid of going insane?" My anger was skyrocketing, but since the curse hadn't happened because Clockwork reset time, all that happened was that my eyes glowed brighter.

I released the anger through my palms and for a second I thought that I heard someone yell something. At that point I didn't care, and I launched a surprisingly powerful ecto-blast at Spectra that drained almost all of my power.

Spectra had seen the blast coming so she had turned intangible and had dropped like a stone through the earth. She did not reappear, and now there was not only a hill in the farmer's field, but a huge ditch as well.

I looked down and saw that Vlad had jumped into the ditch and was frantically looking around for something. Since the useless blast had taken most of my power I floated down to the ground slowly and changed back to normal. Jazz was staring at me with fear in her eyes and I watched as she carefully backed away.

Vlad stared up at me from the bottom of the ditch and said, "Were too late. Danny killed that woman for no reason. He's gone insane." His head dropped and I realized this had been Spectra's plan all along.


	3. Disbelief And Pain

Jazz pulled out yet another gun from her teal suit and aimed it at my head. "I knew that you couldn't trust a ghost." She said as she fired at me. The beams came fast, and I dodged them all until it seemed like she had run out of ammo. I looked at Vlad for help but he simply stared back sadly.

Unfortunately while I was distracted by Vlad, Jazz managed to hit me. The beam was surprisingly powerful and I fell from the sky. I landed on the ground with a thud and was extremely grateful that I was still in my ghost form. A fall from that height would have killed a human.

Jazz threw a ghost proof net over me and I could do nothing except stare at the blue sky. Then she ran over and smirked as she glared down at my helpless form. Vlad came into my limited range of vision and I changed back to normal.

"Vlad, I'm not crazy! You have to believe me. That woman was a ghost!" I struggled vainly against the net and hoped that Vlad would believe me. His eyes looked wet and I noticed that he too had his gun pointed at me.

"Danny…" He stopped and I noticed that his hands were shaking as his finger neared the trigger of the gun. "I can't take anymore chances. You may not be insane, but I can't let anymore people get hurt if you are." My eyes widened and I prepared myself for the worst.

"This gun will get rid of your ghost half. Permanently." His finger pressed the trigger and in a split second I had changed into my ghost form and phased into the ground. I heard the beam hit the empty net and I heard Jazz yell triumphantly

I floated back above ground invisibly and saw Vlad looking at the spot where I had vanished with shock and guilt on his face. "Did I kill him?" he asked Jazz.

"I hope so! That lying ghost deserved it!" She smiled and walked back to the minivan. Vlad continued staring at the small charred mark on the ground. Tears dripped from his eyes and I floated closer to him.

"Danny Phantom, where ever you are, if you still exist, please forgive me." He turned and followed Jazz, and I watched them drive away in the silver van.

Mixed feelings sank into my heart and I felt sick. Now there was no one to help me. Vlad thought that I was dead, I'm stranded in the middle of nowhere, and to top it all off, I still could become crazy.

I sank down onto the field and changed back to normal. Sleep began to set in as I was laying there in the field, and the urge to fall to exhaustion and the blackness of sleep was almost too strong.

Blue smoke appeared in front of my face and I sighed half heartedly. I didn't even bother to change into my ghost form. Ember appeared in front of me and looked around. "Where could he be?" She noticed me and instead of attacking she floated down to the ground. "Have you seen a ghost in a black and white jumpsuit with white hair and bright green eyes?"

Apart from being very confused I also felt very suspicious. "Why do you want him?" I asked as casually as I could. Ember stared down at me, and I wondered if she would recognize me.

She sighed and said, "Usually I don't talk to mortals, but I could really use someone to talk to right now." She sat in the air and continued. "I'm supposed to find this Phantom guy and show him this." Ember reached into her boot and pulled out a tiny golden thing.

"Since I'm low on the powerful ghost list that's all that I know. Doom only told me that the ghost I'm looking for would recognize what this is." I stared at the shining speck in disbelief. It was a piece of the time belt.

Ember flicked the speck off her finger and then stood up in midair. "I can tell by the look on your face that my job is done. See ya later ghost boy." She vanished and I smacked my face with my hand. Once more I had been tricked.

I searched around frantically for the speck and gave up after several minutes. It was like I was searching for… well, a speck in a huge field. The sky was growing dark and I needed to find shelter for the night.

The whole horizon was empty and I realized that I was going to have to fly. Two blue rings surrounded me and I jumped up into the air. Flying was pretty easy, and my mind wandered as I flew through the darkening sky.

Why had Ember tricked me? What was going on? Where was I going to sleep? My thoughts kept going back to Amity Park, and a wave of homesickness washed over me, but I couldn't go back. I was alone and tired and after flying for countless miles I simply landed and fell asleep in a corn field.

I woke up the next morning and resumed flying. I didn't know where I was going, and I didn't really care. What could I do? No one was going to help me, and I didn't even know how to get to where ever Doom was.

Guilt flooded my heart as I remembered Vlad. He thought that I was dead, so he didn't think that he could help me anyway. Maybe that was the problem. I stopped and floated. Vlad had always believed in me before, even when he thought that I had turned evil, and now I had forced him to feel guilty because I wasn't brave enough to turn visible.

I had to do something.

One hundred and twenty miles per hour is quite fast, and I was determined to make it to Amity Park before Vlad. Time didn't seem to pass and finally I saw my town on the horizon. I had been following the road and I glanced down and saw the silver minivan flash by as if it was standing still.

I landed in other world Danny's room and became human. After several minutes I heard the van park in front of the house and heard the front door open. My other world mom walked past and noticed me in the room.

"Danny what are you doing back so soon? I thought you went on a date." I let out a sigh of relief now that I knew that I wouldn't find myself and Mom interpreted it as a sigh of sadness. "It didn't go well? That's a shame." She left and I walked out of my room and down the stairs.

Vlad and Jazz were standing at the door and Jazz saw me first. "Danny you should have been there! Dad destroyed a ghost with that weird gun of his!" I resisted the urge to change into my ghost form and yell boo.

She walked away and I turned and looked at Vlad. His eyes were dry now, but they looked haunted, and I could tell that guilt was eating him alive. Vlad looked back at me and if anything he looked even worse.

"You look exactly like someone else I knew." He said. Vlad stared at me and then walked over to me. "Danny, I killed someone, and I don't think I can live with that fact. I killed a boy, I killed you! Danny I killed the you from another world!" Vlad was hysterical, and I wanted to hit myself for all of the pain I had caused him.

"Vlad," I said, and he looked up in shock because I had called him Vlad, "You didn't kill the Danny from another world because," I took a deep breath. If Vlad didn't believe me there was no way I could avoid being shot since I was so close. "I'm that Danny!" again I changed into my ghost form and watched as Vlad almost screamed.

He caught himself and shook his head. "You're… how did you…" Vlad slapped himself in the face. "I'm not dreaming!" Then he stared at me and hung his head. "Danny, I'm so sorry. I was supposed to be the good Vlad, and here I am trying to get rid of your ghost half."

"Aiaiaiaiaia!" Jazz came into the room screaming and I felt a blast come in contact with my body. It felt like I was being sucked into the Fenton Ghost Weasel again. The last thing I saw was Vlad wrestling a large gun from Jazz and then I passed out.

_**I have been typing a lot this weekend.**_


	4. A Ghostly World

I woke up about two seconds later and I was still in my ghost form. A small portal in front of me started to vanish and I realized far too late what had happened. Jazz had used the portable ghost portal to send me into the Ghost Zone.

The portal vanished right as I was about to go through it. Seconds before it vanished I saw Vlad trying to get through it also. I looked around the silent world I was in, hoping that there was some way out. In this world, Vlad didn't have a ghost portal, and the one that Jack had had been destroyed.

Other ghosts stared at me but they didn't seem alarmed by my sudden appearance. Suddenly I realized something. These ghosts didn't know me. How could they? This Ghost Zone was separate from my own, and I hadn't fought any of these ghosts.

An old lady ghost floated up to me. "Oh, it's so sad when someone dies so young. Let me guess, you were driving home drunk from a costume party." She said this with such cheer in her voice that it scared me. If all ghosts here were like this then I was doomed.

"Um, no, I'm too young to drive." The old lady smiled, and I tried not to shudder.

By now a small crowd had gathered around us. "Well, tell me dearie, how did you die? And why are you wearing that strange costume?" The other ghosts all had curious looks on their dead faces, and I realized that I would still have to make up excuses even though this time instead of stopping humans from discovering I was a ghost, it was stopping ghosts from finding out I was human.

"My costume? Um… it's the new fashion, and as for how I died, I… uh, was hit by a car." It was a bad lie, but since most of the ghosts looked kind of old, they didn't really notice that the idea of wearing jumpsuits died in the eighties. All of them floated off except for one.

My first questioners smile became impossibly large, and she reminded me of the Grinch in those old Christmas specials. "How sad. You know something, I'm not sure I believe you." Her skin seemed to ripple. "I can sense the vibes that ghosts give off when they die; in fact I feed off of them."

She started to grow and change and her skin appeared to melt off. Coarse black hair sprouted up over her body and her eyes became impossibly large. Floating in her place was a large fly, its proboscis oozing acid, and somehow the hideous creature still could speak. "And your not giving off vibes dearie!" the thing buzzed.

Apart from being totally disgusted I was also angry with myself for letting it get so out of hand. I was trying to lay low, and somehow I still managed to draw attention to myself. The fly floated closer and started sucking in air through its acid filled tube. The voice was becoming more fly like, and I had to listen closely to decipher the fly's words.

"In fact, zzzzz, you taste almost human!" My eyes widened and I knew that I had to end this before she figured out my secret. She flew forward and I just barely managed to dodge. The stench of rot filled my nose and I tried not to gag. She buzzed angrily and turned around. The fly spit its disgusting acid at me, and to my disgust a tiny fleck hit my arm.

The black section that the liquid had hit started to fade. I watched transfixed as white showed through, and I realized that it was my t-shirt. The fly started to buzz happily, and somehow I managed to catch the words. "You'rezzz hiding somethingzzzz" the rest was just buzzing, but for some reason I knew it was laughter.

She pulled her proboscis back so that she could spit again, and before I could attack I suddenly dropped from the sky. The air whistled past my ears and the fly quickly vanished as I plummeted farther and farther down.

Finally I caught myself after what felt like hours of falling. If I had a heart, it probably would have had a heart attack, but I was glad that I was away from that fly. I assumed that my sudden loss of powers had been caused by the fly's acid, but something about that didn't seem right. I didn't know what though.

I looked around the strange world I was in again, and realized with dread that I had absolutely no clue where I was. At least from my house I was familiar with the surrounding Ghost Zone, but now it was completely new territory.

There were fewer doors here, and most of them looked old, their hinges were rusted, so I decided that they were uninhabited. Finally curiosity took over and I floated over to one of the oldest looking doors. I tried to open it but its hinges squeaked loudly and it wouldn't budge.

Still my curiosity was getting the better of me, and I looked around to make sure that there were no ghosts. As soon as I was positive that there were none I switched into my human form and stepped through the door.

Someone was sitting in a chair faced away from me. I quickly became a ghost just as he turned around. He was old and decrepit like his door, and it took me a moment to realize that he looked oddly familiar. The wrinkles in his face shifted into a knowing smile.

"Clockwork?" I asked, and the figure nodded. Sometimes I had seen Clockwork as an old man, but I had never seen him this old. I suspected that this was his true age. I walked over and tried not to stare at him.

"I'm surprised you found this place Danny," he said, and his voice was quiet and hoarse. "Only the very lost find their way here and usually they can't get in. I can tell that you are shocked at my current appearance, but I'm afraid that I can't change it."

The hope that had been slowly rising since I had seen Clockwork vanished, and his face fell to as he read my emotions. "Time is unraveling. I don't even know what's going to happen to me anymore. Nothing I can do will help you, but I will give you this." He waved his hand and a strange sensation spread through me.

Clockwork looked extremely weak, and before I could ask him what he had done to me he answered. "I have increased your sense of direction. All ghosts know their way around the Ghost Zone, but since you are half human you didn't have that power." Clockwork groaned and clutched at his chest.

I jumped forward and tried to help him but he pushed me away. "No, don't waste anymore time. Mine will not run out, but your future looks grim if you do not hurry." I tried to talk but he cut me off. "Go!" The door swung open and I floated out.

As soon as I had left Clockwork's door it slammed shut, and I knew that I shouldn't go back in there.

The same sensation I had felt earlier seeped back into me, and I instantly knew which way to go. It was very strange; almost like I had been here before and knew all of the paths like an expert.

Now the only problem was deciding _where_ I wanted to go. I was desperate, but something was urging me to go to Clockwork's castle. Clockwork wouldn't be there, but still I knew that going there was important.

I flew as fast as I dared without attracting attention to myself. The ghost population increased, but none of the locals gave me a second glance. Finally I came to the huge castle surrounded by floating gears.

The castle was silent and I floated to the main room. All of the portals were black. Dread filled my chest as the last possible way to escape vanished.

A chill went down my spine and I turned invisible. Something very large entered the room and I realized that it was Skulker. Another ghost was with him as well, and this one was also very large. It was the puppy that had haunted me and had destroyed Axon Labs.

"You can't hide from me ghost boy I know that you're here. It's only a matter of time before my dog sniffs you out. Unlike the last time I had encountered the puppy, this time it looked very fierce, and I was pretty positive that it didn't know who I was.

The dog turned and growled at where I was standing, and before I could dodge Skulker had thrown a net over me. I fell to the ground and the ghost dog picked the ends of the net up in its drooling maw. Skulker chuckled darkly as I turned visible out of defeat. "Won't Doom be pleased to see what I caught today."


	5. Double Trouble

I struggled against the net and finally decided that I should blow my cover and become human. It wasn't working very well anyway. The rings looked strange as they passed over my crumpled form, and I felt the net sway slightly.

Skulker laughed as I looked around in shock. "A human net reinforced with ghost energy. Doom had warned me about your half human talents. Not even _you_ can escape this net." Something wet landed on my now human arm and I looked up and realized that the ghost dog was drooling on me.

I changed back intro my ghost form so that my jumpsuit would at least keep the drool off of my skin. To my surprise the drool was just as wet as before. I craned my neck and stared at my arm. The spot where my t-shirt had shown now extended down to my elbow and up to my shoulder.

My eyes widened and I stared at my skin which looked unnaturally pale. I turned intangible to avoid any more drool and was shocked when my exposed elbow sank through both layers of net.

An idea formed in my head. I changed back to my human form and willed myself to turn intangible without going ghost. The net held me for two more seconds before I completely fell through it.

Again I plummeted through the sky but managed to change into my ghost form before I fell too far. I looked down at my arm and gasped. It was almost completely human.

Once, when I had been shrunk by the Fenton Crammer, I had also started to lose my ghost form. But this time was different. It felt like my ghost half was… well, I guess there's no other term for it, dying.

I wanted to believe that it was just the fly's acid, but again something inside me told me that the cause was much more sinister. Maybe I was just insane already. I looked around in desperation and saw a small floating island.

It was very calm in this part of the Ghost Zone, and as I sat on the strange grass I felt my thoughts finally organize themselves. Why I was simply wasting precious time was beyond me, but I had lost hope and there was nothing else I could do.

My mind was buzzing with unanswered questions. Why had my sense of direction led me into a trap? How did Skulker know where to catch me? Why had Clockwork sent me straight to Kansas when he knew that I had to find Vlad in Amity Park? Was Clockwork even still in existence? Does Sam realize where I've gone?

Sam. My heart ached as I remembered her warm lips against mine. Had it only been a day since I had seen her last? I wondered how I had lived so long without confessing my love to her. A strange sensation filled my arm, and I looked down at it in interest.

The strange black material that my jumpsuit was made of started to flow over my arm. Soon all of the exposed skin had disappeared and I felt my ghost half strengthen. Power flowed through me and I couldn't help but smile. Even when she wasn't with me Sam still made things better.

I stood up and stretched. Then I launched off the small island and realized that I began to recognize the surrounding areas. Finally I made it back to where the portal had dumped me.

The hairs on my head stood up and blue smoke escaped my mouth in a gasp. "You didn't think it would be that easy to escape the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter did you?" I spun around in midair and stared into Skulker's soulless mechanical eyes.

He had all of his weapons drawn and aimed at my head. I floated backwards and suddenly the air around me became warmer. A voice I thought I would never hear gasped and I summoned all of the energy I had and sent it at Skulker.

I didn't see whether or not the blast hit Skulker because suddenly I was facing the wall of my house in the real world. Vlad grabbed me and pushed me onto the floor. I turned invisible and intangible and stood up to look around.

Vlad had the Portable Ghost Portal in his hands and it looked like it had been used recently. I began to realize that Vlad had been using the gun to try and create a portal for me to get back through. But of course I had to fall through the Ghost Zone and get lost.

As for the voice, I looked around and felt my throat tighten. It was me, but not me. Other Danny blinked and stared at Vlad, his dad, and then at the spot where I had disappeared. "Dad, please tell me that I did not just see a ghost."

"Danny, I- um, well it's hard to explain this." He also looked at the spot where I had vanished. "Danny, you can turn visible now."

Other me rolled his eyes and said, "I know that I told you that I felt invisible at school but don't you think that you're taking it a little too seriously?"

Vlad sighed and said, "Phantom please turn visible and or tangible." I appeared next to Vlad and he jumped a little in surprise. My clone however screamed like a little girl.

"Oh my god a ghost! Don't kill me I'm too handsome to die! I mean, not that it's a bad thing Mr. Phantom sir but I'm still dating! Oh god no!" I sighed in disgust. If this was how other me acted then I was glad that I was his opposite.

I stared at Vlad, who sighed and knelt down next to his son. "Danny, Danny- I mean, Phantom, is not going to hurt you. He's a hero." I rubbed the back of my neck and wondered how this version of me would react to "Phantom" turning into him.

Other Danny rocked back and forth on the floor in a fetal position. It sort of amazed me that Vlad could be so patient with someone like that. Evil Vlad would have blasted him by now.

Vlad looked up at me and said, "This is getting us nowhere. Danny, would you mind changing back to normal? Maybe then I could at least explain a few things."

Danny stopped moving and looked up at his father. "I am normal. In fact sometimes I think that I'm the _only _normal one in this family." Watching my duplicate's great mind in action made me wonder if Dash was a rocket scientist.

The two blue rings surrounded me and I felt the tight spandex turn into my loose t-shirt and pants. This happened to be the exact same thing that other Danny was wearing. Instead of calming Danny down like Vlad had hoped, my transformation had a different affect on him.

He stared at me for a minute and said, "It all make's sense now! You're not a ghost," Vlad sighed in relief. "You're a body stealing alien who's come to take over my life!" Now Vlad sighed in exasperation.

"Danny, listen to me. He is also named Danny, he looks like you, and he's the same age as you. That is because he _is_ you from a different dimension."

"That's crazy!" Other me said.

"Not nearly as crazy as saying that I'm an alien." I finally spoke and other Danny jumped at the sound of my voice.

Vlad's voice spoke and it was eerily calm. "Danny, maybe you should wake up now. This is all a dream and when you wake up you'll realize that." He gave me an odd look. Then he looked over towards his son.

I walked over and before my other self could realize what I was doing I had overshadowed him. Then I walked up the stairs and laid down on his bed. Vlad gave me a weird look as I floated through the ceiling and landed next to him.

"All I wanted you to do was play along but I guess that that works too." Vlad smiled and sighed. "Sometimes I wonder if _he's_ the insane one." He frowned and looked at me strangely. "Are you all right Danny? You look awfully pale."

Something in me felt very cold. Out of worry I tried to change into my ghost form but to my horror the rings wouldn't appear. The cold in my chest expanded and I could feel it spreading through me.

Pain exploded through me and it felt like worms were tunneling through my skin. I heard a strange static sound and to my horror I realized that it was laughter. Laughter coming from my mouth.


	6. Danny And The Belt

I sat up and looked around. My head hurt and it felt like I had recently tried to phase through a ghost shield. I looked around and was shocked to see that I was in my room. The last thing I had remembered was overshadowing my other self and then coming up here.

In fact I didn't remember ever phasing out of other Danny. I looked down and realized that I wouldn't be able to tell if I had left or not. The usual feeling that I had when I was in someone else's body was gone, and when I tried to phase out I couldn't.

An eerily familiar sound came from downstairs. I tried to change into my ghost form but the part of me where my powers were felt empty. Instead I jumped off my bed and carefully walked down the stairs.

The sound of static grew louder and I began to have second thoughts about investigating. The last time I had heard that it had been in a cavern filled with hypnotized people. I stopped and listened. It was coming from the living room where I had left Vlad.

I crouched down and stuck my head around the corner. Vlad was facing me but he hadn't noticed me yet. He was too preoccupied with the other person in the room. The stranger had his back to me and my eyes widened in terror.

He had gold tentacles glowing underneath his pale skin. I could see bones in his arms and the metal had cracked them on its way out. His skin was oddly bumpy and he looked even worse than Sam had when she had looked like that.

His white shirt was stretched oddly over the skin, and the pants seemed to be tight in all of the wrong places. My eyes went up to his head and his black hair looked messy and I assumed that the scalp also had been disfigured.

He was me.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I sat up and looked around. My head hurt and it felt like I had recently tried to phase through a ghost shield. I looked around and was shocked to see that Vlad was staring at me with a look of disgusted horror on his face. The last thing I remembered was falling to the floor in pain.

My skin itched and I stared at it for a few seconds. Golden tentacles had wrapped themselves around my bones, and the bones were cracked in several places. Fear began to creep into me, but then it stopped as an eerie calm took over.

So I had been taken over by the time belt. I was going to become crazy anyway. Vlad still was silent and I was almost positive that he had gone into shock. I realized that I was still making the static/laughing sound and closed my mouth. It squeaked like a rusty hinge.

Pain was gone, and I realized that the time belt had blessed me by stopping my feelings. I moved my arm and felt the metal working like muscle. Vlad took a step back and I decided to test my new voice.

"Don't you wish that you could be this powerful Vlad?" I said. My voice was deep and robotic. I narrowed my probably red eyes and watched as Vlad tried to stop himself from shaking.

"D-Danny, what's happening?" I felt like I could crush his skull with one hand if I wanted to. Maybe I did want to. I walked forward slowly and Vlad had backed himself into a corner. For some strange reason, probably all of the metal, I was now taller than Vlad, and I could tell that I looked intimidating.

My arm whirred and I moved my hand towards Vlad. He would be so easy to kill. One quick snap and his puny neck would be broken. I stopped. Why did I want to kill him? Because he had helped stop Doom. What? I clutched my head. Pain returned and it felt like I was dying.

I gave in and the horrible pain left. My hand moved on its own and wrapped itself around Vlad's neck. He gasped and I could feel his pulse underneath my fingers. I tried to stop myself but could feel the fingers tightening. "No!" Someone behind me screamed and there was a dull thud as fists beat against my back.

My hand dropped from Vlad's throat and I turned to face the person. He was glaring up at me with sharp blue eyes and his clothes were wrinkled like he had been sleeping in them.

He was me.

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I dived forward and slammed my fists against his back. His hand dropped Vlad and Vlad slumped down unconscious against the wall. The evil me looked slightly confused as he stared down at me, and I wondered how he had gotten so tall.

His mouth creaked open and the hated sound of his laughter filled the room. "Aren't you the same boy who was claiming that I was a body stealing alien a few minutes ago?" I said nothing and continued glaring at him.

I don't know how I remembered everything. What the heck had happened? Finally I decided that it might be better if he thought I was the wimpy boy who had been afraid of him when he looked normal. Then I remembered that I would have to act afraid of myself and then my headache returned. As if parallel universes and time travel wasn't enough.

"Don't hurt my dad!" I said, and hoped that I sounded scared.

His red eyes narrowed. "You seem different. Maybe death will teach you to be more respectful to those more powerful than you." He grabbed me by my neck and lifted me off of the ground. Why don't my ghost powers ever work when I need them?

I could feel my skin bruising under his fingers and my lungs screamed for oxygen. My head spun and I just barely clung to life. Mechanical words filled the air and I could just barely make them out.

"I should have killed you the moment I overshadowed you. When I left I felt too weak to do anything though. Now I am strong, and soon all that is left of Danny Fenton will be replaced by me." My heart beat echoed around my head and somehow I managed to squeeze out one last breath.

"Never." I whispered, and then I used the last of my strength and a weak phrase escaped from between my blue lips. It strengthened and became just barely loud enough for the evil me to hear. "Going… Ghost." Proof that I was still going to fight.

An almost shocked expression appeared on my murderers face and he dropped me like a hot stone. I landed awkwardly on my feet and fell onto the ground. Air burned as it passed down my crushed windpipe.

My eyes blurred over and I watched as my evil robot self or whatever he was backed off with fear mixed into his burning eyes. He turned and ran through the wall. Why could his ghost powers work when mine couldn't? My eyes closed and I felt myself fade into unconsciousness.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I thought that I was doing the world a favor by getting rid of that stupid kid. He was so close to death that I could almost sense the life fleeing his body. Then he said my battle cry, the one that I had used ever since I had gotten my ghost powers, and I just dropped him.

Now I would never have to use that cursed phrase again. I could feel my ghost half weakening and knew that soon I would be able to use his powers without actually being half ghost. Then the metal of the time belt would be able to fully take over, and I would be complete.

Somehow I had left a part of me in that human weakling. I don't know how I did it or what I did, but I knew that that kid had to die. He was the only evidence left that I had once been human. In a way I sounded like my evil future self.

I almost missed the way the wind felt on my skin as I flew, but it was a small price to pay for being so powerful. My eyes scanned the city below me and I wondered what exactly I was looking for.

My search was interrupted when I suddenly saw Ember McLain flying towards me. She looked scared and I felt my mouth open against my will. "Tell Doom thank you for bringing me to such a powerful host body." My strange voice said. The time belt had more control than I thought.

"That tiny speck I had turned you into that? I wouldn't want to be in your shoes kid." She looked away as if I was too hideous to look at. "Doom wants you to come to his lair." Ember flew away and I followed involuntarily.

I was finally beginning to regret letting this happen.

_**That was hard to write. I'm glad that there is still one Danny that acts the same. Evil cyborg Danny is hard to write for because he has no real feeling. I know that this chapter is a bit confusing but first person can be like that. How many readers guessed that I hadn't just put Ember in as a chapter lengthener back in chapter 3?**_


	7. Girls And Ghosts

_**Here's the deal. Everyone was really confused with the last chapter so I'm going to explain what is going on. In chapter three Ember came to Danny and showed him a piece of the time belt. Then she dropped it and Danny eventually gave up looking for it. Where is it you might ask? Try in Danny. The next time this is even important is in chapter four when Danny falls from the sky and has a bad feeling that the cause of it was something more evil than fly spit. The hole in his costume in chapter five shrinks after he feels heartsick for Sam, and the time belt is affected by love so that is explained. When Danny overshadows his other self he accidentally splits into two people both with the same memory up to that point. That is caused by the time belt and will be explained more in later chapters. Both the good Danny and the evil Danny are still the same person I started the story out with, and that is why I had to write both of their point of views. The pathetic Danny from chapter five is now simply the normal Danny. Good Danny does not have ghost powers but evil Danny does. Good Danny said Going Ghost because he knew that it was the only way to show in a breath that he was more than just a pathetic wimp. More questions should be answered by following chapters, but if they are not than you can ask me through email.**_

_**By the way, this chapter will be in good Danny's point of view.**_

I opened my eyes and suddenly remembered what had happened. Vlad moaned and I looked over as he sat up slowly. "Danny, stop!" He screamed, and then realized that he was not being held by the throat anymore.

He stared at me as I slowly pushed myself off the floor. My neck felt broken and it hurt to even move. "What happened? You were full of metal and I was up in the air… Are you okay?" I wanted to shake my head but knew that that would probably only make it hurt more.

"No." I whispered hoarsely. Vlad helped me up and seemed surprised that he was taller than me. "Can I ask you a few questions?" Vlad nodded and then turned pale.

"First I need to ask you something. Are you my son?" I raised one eyebrow and then told him that I was not. "Then my son was the one who almost killed me?" My knees almost gave out.

"No, that was, um…" I blinked and thought about it. Whoever it was seemed to know everything that I knew, and seemed to be me. My head spun and I almost collapsed. "It was the time belt, only it had taken me over, only now I'm two people and your son is gone."

That was it! For some reason I had become Vlad's son. Instead of fusing with the time belt I had been split when I overshadowed the Danny from this world. Now I was a normal teenager while the other me was being controlled by a crazy living piece of metal and had ghost powers.

Then there was the fact that I had no clue how the time belt had gotten so out of control. My mind clicked as I remembered. Ember had lost the speck. What if it had somehow gotten inside of me? It would have been easier to take me over since it was already inside, and I wasn't expecting it.

Vlad looked scared. "What do you mean my son is gone? There are two of you?" He looked like he was going to scream.

"Well, at the moment I'm trying to figure that out. I think that I accidentally became your son somehow, and a part of me split off and became the Danny that tried to kill you and me. Unfortunately I have no ghost powers and no way to stop myself like I stopped Sam last time."

"As if time travel and parallel universes weren't enough." Vlad said. "What are we going to do?"

"You could start by answering something for me. What did he, I mean, I do when I first came back from overshadowing your son?"

"First you floated through the ceiling and landed next to me. That was strange because you never changed into your ghost form. You looked really pale and weak. I asked if you were okay and you looked panicked. Then you looked like you were trying to go ghost but couldn't, and you screamed. Metal started slinking through your bones like snakes and there were horrible cracking noises. Then you fell to the ground. But it wasn't you the whole time, it was other you." He massaged his head with his hand.

The only idea that I had thought of was that maybe I was my human half. I remembered how I had started to turn human while in my ghost form and I could use my ghost powers while in my human form.

What if the evil me was just my ghost half mixed with the time belt? That made the most sense. It would look human and still act like me. I was pacing back and forth and Vlad watched me walk with a hopeless look on his face.

Once before I had been split by the Fenton ghost catcher. One half of me was human but I was lazy and rude. My other half was a ghost but was heroic- way too heroic. I didn't feel lazy or heroic, so it wasn't like that.

Clockwork had warned me about seeing myself in this world. Had he known all along that this would happen? If only I could see him… Vlad was staring out the window at something I couldn't see. I walked over and stared in shock at a black clothed person storming towards the house.

Seconds later the door slammed open and the Sam of this world entered the house. She looked around and when she saw me she ran over with an angry look on her face. "Danny Masters if you ever ask me out on a date again I will kill you!" Apart from the initial shock of seeing her I was also very confused.

"What did I do?" I asked, and Sam sighed in exasperation.

"You're still just as stupid as ever. Since you seem to have amnesia I'll fill you in. Today you were supposed to meet me at the Nasty Burger and thirty minutes later I'm still waiting! I ruined my diet and had four Mighty Meaty Cheesy Melts while waiting."

I stared at her in confusion for about ten seconds until I caught what she had said. "You're not a vegetarian here?"

"Not here or anywhere. I'm a carnivore and proud of it. Tucker's the veggie-freak." This was getting to be too weird. "Now are you going to make up some excuse or what?"

"Well, um, we had a family crisis." Sam raised her eyebrows and turned to Vlad. He flinched under her glare and then nodded.

"You could say that. Danny was in no shape to go out. I'm sorry Miss Manson. Maybe you could give him another chance." Sam rolled her eyes and then turned back to me.

"Well… that was a better excuse than usual." She stared at me and I shifted uncomfortably under her purple eyes. "Something's different about you. If anything you seem more handsome than before." I felt my cheeks flush and she laughed.

It was so good to see her again, even if it was her opposite. "Sam, be careful okay? I heard there was a, uh, convict on the loose so you should stay in your house." I knew I was going to regret this last part. "You could even stay with us if you wanted."

Sam smiled and said, "You really are different. That's the first time I've heard you care about someone else." How stupid was my opposite anyway? "Maybe I should stay just so that I can get to know you better."

Vlad jumped and walked a little too quickly over to the door. I heard the lock click and watched him tap a few buttons on a key pad. Then he walked back over and pulled down the blinds of the window he had been staring out of.

Sam stared at him suspiciously but he didn't notice. Instead he almost ran over to me. "Danny, we have company." I stared up at him questioningly. "The dead kind." I gasped and wondered why my ghost sense hadn't gone off. Then I remembered that I was human again.

"We need to go to the lab- oh wait we don't have a lab do we." Vlad shook his head but then looked like he had an idea.

"There is one place we could go!" He grabbed my arm and Sam's arm and pulled us towards the stairs. I heard a crash behind us and started running. Sam looked scared but followed anyway. Vlad stopped at a door and pushed it open.

I knew right away that it was Jazz's room. Ghost fighting gear littered the floor and I saw many weapons that looked like teal versions of my parent's. "Why haven't they found us yet?" I asked Vlad.

He picked up a rather heavy looking gun and said, "After you left I had Jazz put up a prototype ghost shield she had been working on. It won't work for very long, so pick a weapon and hurry up!" There was another loud crash and Sam screamed.

"Danny what the heck is going on!" I grabbed a gun and then saw something that looked like Valerie's hover board. Sam got ready to slap me and screamed, "If you don't answer me than I'm leaving!"

"I don't think that's a good idea. There are ghosts outside and they won't show any mercy. I'm trying to think of a plan but you keep hitting me!" She stopped mid-swing and picked up a small blaster.

"Please trust me Sam. I love you, and refuse to let you get hurt." She blushed and looked away. I still loved her even though she wasn't _my_ Sam. "We'll get through this." Another crash and now an alarm went off.

"WARNING GHOST SHEILD HAS BEEN DEACTIVATED" I ran over to a window and pushed it open. Vlad came over next to me and I showed both him and Sam onto the glider that I had found.

"I hope this works!" I said to myself. The door fell over behind us and I saw Skulker stomp through the remains. "Here goes everything!" I pushed the glider out of the window and onto the roof. Vlad and Sam climbed after it and I jumped through just as I heard one of Skulker's many weapons slam into the spot where I had been standing.

Sam was standing in front of Vlad on the glider. I jumped on and was extremely grateful that I had seen Valerie operate it so many times. My foot stomped down on the button and the glider rose into the air. It lurched forward and Sam wrapped her arms around me as we sped off.

I looked back and saw Skulker flying after us. I urged the glider forward and hoped that it would be fast enough. All that we could count on was fate, and I've discovered that that is not always the best thing to trust.

_**How's that? Is it more explained now? I hope so, but if not you know what to do.**_


	8. Metal And Sacrifices

_**You could have read this chapter before the last one if you wanted to. This starts right where chapter 6 left off. It is in Evil Danny's point of view, but after reading this you might stop calling him evil.**_

Somewhere inside of me I could feel human emotion. Fear was the most dominant. I flew after Ember and realized that it wasn't really me flying, but the time belt using _my_ powers. That scared me the most.

Since I was no longer in control over my body I felt my thoughts wander back to when I had almost killed Vlad and… the other me. What had happened? He had said my battle cry and I had dropped him. I don't know why.

Something else was bugging me. How had he even known my battle cry? No one knew that except Sam, Tucker, and both Vlads. Now that I think back I realized that I hadn't used it in a long time. He hadn't turned into a ghost when he said it. Wasn't he a normal kid?

He had seemed different. Could he really actually be me? That would explain why I had to kill him. But now that I was lost in thought I wondered why I wanted to kill him so badly. Why had I even wanted to kill anyone? My fear returned along with the dark suspicion that it was the time belt simply using me for revenge.

Was this what it was like for Sam? Able to think but nothing else? Knowing that I was hurting others and not being able to stop? Suddenly I felt a strange presence enter my mind and a cold robotic voice said, _"Don't worry about killing people. That's my job. Soon there will be nothing left of you."_

I couldn't even widen my eyes in surprise. My mouth didn't move but I knew that I could talk back to it. _"What are you doing to me?" _Static filled my thoughts as the time belt laughed.

"_That's for me to know and you to find out when it happens. Until then consider yourself my prisoner and witness to all of the things that I do with your body." _The voice faded along with the strange coldness that had invaded my mind.

I tried to move but only succeeded in focusing my eyes. While I had been thinking Ember had led me into an abandoned area. She paused and then dived into the ground. I watched her go and remembered all of the times I had referred to hell as, 'down there' when I was younger.

My body shifted and I felt it turn intangible as I sped towards the ground. Earth surrounded me and I couldn't help but feel like I was dead and buried in a coffin. I let my eyes blur over and returned to my thoughts. There wasn't much else I could do anyway.

What was I? Part ghost part human part robot? What was the other Danny? He was me, my good half. Something had caused me to split, and the only explanation I had was that it had something to do with the time belt and being a halfa. _"How did you split me into two different people?"_ I called out to the time belt.

The coldness swept through my head as it answered. _"Well the thing is there was just not enough room in your body for me. You already had two different halves. Lucky for me you overshadowed that pathetic other version of yourself, and all I had to do was shove some of you into him. It made a duplicate of you minus the metal. I can't say that I'm pleased, but I had no other choice."_

"_What?" _I mentally yelled.

"_It was nothing important, only a few of your feelings like love and stuff like that. I also had to get rid of your ghost form and a few of your less needed powers. He can't use them though because he is still mostly human while you are mostly ghost and me. I was surprised when he attacked though; I would have thought that without his powers he would be too afraid."_

I didn't respond. I was too shocked and scared as I realized that without love there was no way to stop the time belt. At least with Sam I had been able to stop the time belt by kissing her. What would happen now?

My eyes surfaced and I stared around. There was more rock than dirt here, and I wondered how far down we would have to go. Just as I was deciding to go back to thinking hopelessly the rock stopped.

Ember floated out after me and I stared around the huge cave in awe. It was empty but I noticed that there was an eerie green glow cast around the dark room. Then I saw it. A small ghost portal was sitting in the center of the cave.

I was forced to float down in front of it. The green cleared suddenly and I saw the Ghost Zone through the strange ring. Ember flew through and I wondered why I hadn't followed. Suddenly a large black eye glared at me through the clear portal.

Loud maniacal laughs boomed around the huge room. Now I felt my feet moving towards the portal and I desperately tried to pull them back. Nothing happened and I felt cold surround my body as I entered the Ghost Zone.

My head bent back and I looked up into the face of someone I had hoped that I would never see again. Doom glared down at me and his black eyes widened. I noticed that there was still a hole in his armor and the skin was a strange shade of green.

"So that's what the time belt does!" He said. "I must admit that I was expecting a much less gruesome effect, but I can't say that you don't deserve it." He laughed again. I wanted more than anything to look around the place I was in but my head was held rigid in the same position.

Then I finally felt myself move. I got down on my knees and put my head and hands on the ground. It took me a moment to realize what I was doing but then felt embarrassment and anger flood through me as I realized that I was bowing down to Doom.

"I must ask my king, why have you summoned me here? I have no interest in matters of the Ghost Zone." I gritted my teeth and wanted to scream but knew that I couldn't. Doom blinked and looked down.

"How can you not have guessed by now? I need you to help me. I need a special part for this." He motioned behind him and I finally felt my head turn to look at my surroundings. A huge metal structure was being built and I noticed that it was the same shape as a ghost portal. "It's the only way I can escape this infernal place."

I felt my lips draw back in what I guess was a sharp-toothed smile. "I will do anything you want."

Doom also smirked and I saw that his teeth were equally as pointed. "It's nice to see that you're so willing to help. What I need is a sacrifice to start the portal. It can't be human or ghost, but both. The only other halfa was me, but that was a while ago."

I felt my legs move as my body started to run towards the exit. Apparently the time belt wasn't to fond of being sacrificed either. Ember flew down and blocked the way and I watched as other ghosts surrounded me.

"You're not going anywhere."


	9. A Surprising Power

_**You should be noticing a pattern in the chapters right now. I'm planning on making one for time belt Danny and one for good Danny until I decide not to. There might be a few chapters where it's both of their perspectives. This chapter is in good Danny's point of view. We last left off at chapter 7…**_

**Sam was standing in front of Vlad on the glider. I jumped on and was extremely grateful that I had seen Valerie operate it so many times. My foot stomped down on the button and the glider rose into the air. It lurched forward and Sam wrapped her arms around me as we sped off.**

**I looked back and saw Skulker flying after us. I urged the glider forward and hoped that it would be fast enough. All that we could count on was fate, and I've discovered that that is not always the best thing to trust.**

The glider swerved as we somehow managed to dodge another one of Skulker's blasts. Why did he always seem to attack when I was most vulnerable? Sam screamed almost constantly and Vlad had his eyes shut tightly.

Again a blast narrowly missed my head. I swerved just in time and a net flew past us. A thought ran through my head. How had he escaped the Ghost Zone? It could have been possible that he found a door leading out but that was very unlikely.

"Prepare to meet your doom human!" That's it! Doom must have somehow made a portal. But if he had a portal then that meant that there was a way out of the place where he is, and that means that he could somehow escape…

Almost subconsciously I sensed another blast coming up behind us. I swerved but unfortunately one of the rockets keeping us up was hit. Sam's screaming became louder and Vlad gasped in terror as we started to fall from the sky.

"Going Ghost!" I screamed through the air. Finally I felt the familiar chill of my ghost form taking over and looked down in surprise. The ground was coming closer terrifyingly fast and I tried to go against gravity and fly.

I slowed down slightly but continued to fall at an alarming rate. Then two rings flickered around my waist and I became human again. What happened? I closed my eyes and waited for the lethal landing.

Suddenly Sam's screams stopped and I realized that she must have hit the ground first. The ground was surprisingly strange. When I finally collided with it the ground was soft and then it tightened around me. I assumed that the force had pushed me into the soft ground.

After a few seconds of lying in a crunched position I got curious and opened my eyes. All that I saw was sky and… green rope. I shifted and realized that once again I was in one of Skulker's nets.

I turned desperately and looked around. Sam and Vlad were in separate nets and I looked up to see Skulker holding us all up. He stared down at me in disbelief. "I never thought I would have to save my prey." He said. "Especially since I was sent here to capture the human version of you."

Vlad looked up at Skulker and said, "What would you need my son for?" At first Skulker looked confused but then he simply smirked.

"Your son was supposed to be killed by Doom so that he could have his revenge upon you. I wonder if he'll simply accept his enemy instead." Skulker looked slightly scared as if he wasn't sure that Doom would be happy.

I stared at the net and wondered how I was going to get out of this one. My ghost form was definitely not going to work. Vlad looked helpless and Sam simply looked like she had gone into shock. I looked around at the surrounding area and noticed that it looked very abandoned.

Skulker started to float slowly towards the ground. I felt grass brush against my arms as he placed us on the earth. "Ghost child, turn into your other form and carry your friend." He wrapped his arm around Sam and lifted her easily off the ground. "If you refuse than she will pay the price." Sam whimpered and struggled against the net.

What was I going to do? I reached inside of me and desperately tried to transform. Two faded rings formed around my waist but then vanished. Skulker glared at me and I tried again. This time nothing happened.

Skulker kicked me in the stomach and I curled up into a ball. "Obey me child or suffer the consequences!" I sighed and glared up at him.

"I can't!" I yelled. His eyes widened in surprise and then returned to their usual glare.

"What do you mean you can't" I saw you myself!

"If my ghost powers _were _working don't you think that I would have flown away instead of falling into your net?" Skulker looked confused at this and rubbed his flaming goatee.

"I was just supposed to carry one person down to Doom. It's almost impossible to drag three or even two through that many layers of rock. Who should I take Doom's enemy and my prey or the father of the one I was supposed to retrieve?" He stared at us both.

Vlad was looking at me with a strange look on his face. Then he stared at Skulker and said, "Don't you think that Danny is too valuable a trophy for you to simply hand over to someone who didn't even earn it?" Skulker turned his attention towards Vlad. "I mean, you supposedly are the greatest hunter in the Ghost Zone and he's only a big ghost who bosses you around."

Now Vlad had Skulker's attention and I was beginning to panic as I realized what he was doing. "Skulker; World's greatest henchman who caught the infamous Danny Phantom but handed him over to his boss to kill instead. That doesn't sound like a very good title for a ghost as powerful as yourself."

Skulker was sitting in the air listening to every word that Vlad said. "What do you suggest I do puny human?"

I could tell that Vlad had forced himself to smile. "Here's what I suggest. Release the two teenagers. Danny accidentally had his powers shorted out but he'll be fine in a couple of hours. I can tell that you like a challenge, and Danny is quite powerful. Hunt him down when he's stronger and when you catch him you'll be more famous than you could imagine."

"And what do you suggest your fate should be?" Skulker said narrowing his eyes.

Vlad glanced at me and looked down. "Take me to Doom." Skulker's eyes widened to an almost impossible size and I felt mine do the same. "If he wants his revenge then who better to take it out on than the guy who stuck him in there?"

"No!" I struggled against the net and only succeeded in becoming more tangled than before. "Vlad, don't! You can't trust Skulker at all!"

Skulker looked slightly angry. "I'm an honorable ghost. If he gives me one good reason to honor him than I'll do as he says."

Vlad looked at me with his sad blue eyes and then said, "Do as I ask. I have no doubt that Doom will kill me. Consider their release as my last request." Skulker's eyes widened again and he floated over and ripped the net off me. Then he did the same for Sam.

I stood up and ran over to Vlad. "You can't be serious! Doom will kill you!" I tugged at the net in vain. "I won't let you die!" Vlad pushed me away through the net and then spoke.

"There's no other choice Danny. I'm old and have had far more adventure than anyone else I've known since you came along. You, you're young and still you've done more good things than I could ever imagine. You're a hero, ghost powers or not, and the world could use someone like you."

Skulker had vanished and I tried once again to break the net. "No, Danny." Vlad said. "I made a deal with the ghost and I intend to keep it." A small smile formed on his face. "Soon I'll be an honorable ghost too."

There was a noise underneath me and I saw Skulker's arm appear out of the ground. His head also appeared and he said, "Goodbye's are over." He grabbed the edge of Vlad's net and pulled him down into the ground.

I dived forward and tried to stop Vlad's descent. How, I had no idea. My fists slammed against the ground and I stared at the spot where he had vanished. I heard Sam's footsteps behind me and turned around.

She knelt down next to me and said, "You're not the same Danny I know, are you?" I turned away from her. "The Danny I know would never have tried to save his father like that. He would have whimpered and whined."

Sam put her hand on my shoulder. "Unlike him, you're someone worth dying for." I broke away from her hand.

"He shouldn't die Sam. No one should die. Why won't my ghost powers work!" I screamed in frustration and slammed my fists onto the ground again. I beat at the ground and couldn't stop. Why did he have to die! He was good and brave and smart. Why did evil people like my world's Vlad always live and have things their way when people like this world's Vlad are killed for something as pointless as revenge? Why couldn't evil just go away?

Finally I stopped out of exhaustion and collapsed. Tears streamed down my face and I rolled over and looked at the sky. To my surprise dirt was in a ring around the patch of sky I could see. I sat up and looked around. Somehow I was in a pit about five feet deep.

Sam's face poked over the edge and looked down at me. "Danny, what happened? Why are you're fists glowing?" I looked down at my hands just in time to see blue light fade from them. Did I still have a few powers? I concentrated on all of the anger I had felt moments before and the glow returned. My hand sped down and collided with the ground with surprising force.

The dirt around my hand vanished. I stood up and climbed out of the pit. Sam was staring at me with fear and amazement in her amethyst eyes. "Do you have something you don't mind loosing?" She gave me a funny look and pulled her hair tie off of her ponytail.

I took it and pulled back the feelings that caused the power. My hand glowed blue and the hair tie vanished without a trace. I let the glow fade and then felt where it was. Nothing was in my hand. Sam gasped in surprise and then looked up at the sky and screamed. "Danny there's something flying towards us! I think it's that Skulker ghost!"

Anger rushed through me and my fists lit up into an almost blue white light. No one hurts my friends while I'm around. Now I could prove it.


	10. The Time Belt's Plan

_**Back to time belt Danny. We last left off with…**_

_I felt my legs move as my body started to run towards the exit. Apparently the time belt wasn't to fond of being sacrificed either. Ember flew down and blocked the way and I watched as other ghosts surrounded me._

"_You're not going anywhere." _

**_Enjoy the chapter. It's mostly talking, but sets up some suspense. Please remember that the chapters happen at the same time, so this one is parallel to the last one._**

The time belt struggled vainly against the grip of the ghosts. Suddenly I felt sick and weak and realized that I was in control of my body again. The time belt was still in me but I was the one who was going to feel the pain when I was sacrificed.

I tried to break free from the ghosts but since I was mostly ghost I couldn't simply phase through them. Suddenly there was a loud noise to my right and all of the ghosts turned to stare at the ghost portal. Skulker floated through the portal with a green sack over his shoulder.

He floated into the ring of ghosts that were surrounding me and dropped the sack on the ground. To my surprise it moaned. Doom watched us all with interest and then spoke to Skulker in his deep booming voice. "I assume that this is the other piece of my revenge?" Skulker looked terrified of the enormous ghost.

"I-uh- well…" the bag moved and I watched as it fell open from movement. Inside was a very sad looking person in a glowing net. He looked around and gasped in shock. His bright blue eyes stared up at me and I realized with a jolt that it was Vlad.

Doom noticed this too and his hair burst into a huge black flame. "All that I asked you to do was to bring me the human child. Instead you bring me his father. HOW CAN I TORTURE SOMEONE IF THE THING THEY LOVE MOST IS STILL ALIVE!" His black eyes burned with hatred and Skulker shrunk down until he was laying flat on the ground.

"The child- My lord he was gone." He was cowering like a disobedient dog and then I noticed that Vlad was still staring at me with his bright blue eyes.

Most of the ghosts were too busy watching Skulker act like a coward to notice me as I bent down next to Vlad. His level gave seemed to pierce my heart with guilt that I had almost killed him. "Vlad," I said, hating the sound of my own voice. "I'm sorry for hurting you. I can't control myself, the time belt; it's going to kill me."

I felt the cold metal slowly start to control me again. Vlad looked at me with a hurt expression and then sighed. "Danny, I'm afraid I can't help you. The reason I'm here is because I'm helping the _other _you. He's still on the surface defenseless without his powers. I don't know what to do anymore. I-" he stopped and looked away from me. "I'm here to die. There's nothing else I can do." He looked back up at me and I felt the time belt stop its struggle to take back control.

He laughed in a depressed half hearted way. "Never in my wildest dreams had I thought that I could help save the world. And after all that work, after having to watch Maddie die, and believing that Danny was dead, Doom still is going to escape from this place and destroy everyone. The world will be his to rule and the only one who stood a chance against him was split in two, one without powers and one with metal instead of muscle."

Doom continued screaming swear words at Skulker, most of them in a different language that I assume Pariah had known before he fused with Jack. "Vlad please listen to me. You have to escape this place before Doom kills you. Before _I _kill you. I'm terrified of myself Vlad! All that I feel is fear and guilt! The time belt made sure that I can't escape it through love. He gave all of that to my weird twin!"

Vlad almost smiled and I looked at him and was shocked that the usual flare of anger didn't rise in my chest. Other Danny must have gotten that too. "That would explain why he was so honest to Miss Manson." He looked up at me again and became serious. "Danny, the only way to escape the time belt is to fight it with all of your heart and soul." He blinked. "I sound like some cheesy greeting card or something."

I struggled to keep my voice at a whisper as hopelessness rose within me. "I can't! I tried, but the pain was killing me Vlad. I couldn't even stop myself from hurting you." Vlad looked disappointed, sad, and hopeless all at the same time. He looked up at me and said something that made my heart wrench with grief.

"Well then I guess we both have no other choice but to give in to evil and let it kill us." He said nothing more and turned around in the net so that his back was to me.

I tried to reach out to him but the time belt instantly took control. My body stood straight and I felt my lips curl into an evil smile. _"Your friend may have just figured out a way for me to escape sacrifice." _The time belt said. If I could have gone pale I would have.

"_What are you going to do?" _I asked mentally. Static filled my head and the presence left my mind as the time belt refused to answer my question.

"DON'T EVER MAKE SUCH A STUPID DECISION AGAIN!" Doom screamed at Skulker. Man that guy could get angry. Then he finally turned his attention to me. I felt my false smile widen and knew that whatever the time belt was going to do, it wasn't good.

"Um, master!" My metallic voice called out. All that I could move was my eyes and I saw that Vlad was looking at me with concern on his face. "I have discovered a flaw in your escape plan."

Doom glared down at me and waited for the time belt to tell him what the fault was. I myself had no clue. My mouth opened with a small squeak and my evil voice oozed like tar from my mouth. "You said that you needed a halfa to complete the portal right?" Doom narrowed his eyes and nodded.

"Well, it pains me to tell you this, but I am just as much a ghost as you." Doom's eyes became slits.

"And what makes you think that I would believe you?" he asked incredulously.

"If I was a halfa, don't you think that I simply would have changed into a human and walked through the guards?" Doom blinked but refused to admit that this had not occurred to him. "But, there is one last hope for your release my liege." I suddenly realized what was happening but couldn't stop it.

"The reason Skulker couldn't bring you the child you wanted, was because he no longer exists. He was replaced by another part of me- and he is a halfa." Vlad gasped and I could feel his glare on my paper thin skin. If only I had fought back!

Doom glared at Skulker and then said, "Is this true servant!"

Skulker cringed and said, "Well, yes it is my lord, but you see, I promised on my honor to the human that I wouldn't harm Danny." Doom's smile seemed to make the room shiver.

"Leave the 'harm' part to me. I want you to retrieve the boy. If he's a halfa like the both of you claim, than you will both be free from my service. But if he is not, than you will wish that ghosts could die, because my punishment will be far worse than death."

Skulker flew through the portal as fast as he could.


	11. Fading Away

_**It was so hard for me to write the last chapter because I wanted to get to this part. News for everyone, I'm now a member of Deviant Art. Someone already took the name livinglife so my name there is DannyArtist. Check it out sometime. I've illustrated this story and Swimming In The Time Stream. Here's where we last left Danny and Sam.**_

**I took it and pulled back the feelings that caused the power. My hand glowed blue and the hair tie vanished without a trace. I let the glow fade and then felt where it was. Nothing was in my hand. Sam gasped in surprise and then looked up at the sky and screamed. "Danny there's something flying towards us! I think it's that Skulker ghost!"**

**Anger rushed through me and my fists lit up into an almost blue white light. No one hurts my friends while I'm around. Now I could prove it.**

Like Sam had said, Skulker was indeed flying towards us. The glow in my hands faded. Skulker wasn't expecting much of a fight, so the element of surprise would be mine, and with only one power that I could barely control I needed all of the help I could get.

He landed in front of us and I just barely managed to keep my hands from glowing as anger spread through me. "I thought that you were an honorable ghost Skulker. What made you decide to come back for us?"

Skulker's eyes glared at me angrily and I returned the stare. "Foolish ghost child, can you not find a loophole in what your friend said? I am not allowed to harm you, that doesn't mean that Doom can't." I put my hands behind my back because I knew that they were starting to glow. Vlad had died in vain because of the ghost standing before me.

"So you've come to kidnap a defenseless human. Real awe inspiring Skulker." Skulker was almost exploding with anger.

"Enough talk. Doom has more authority over me than a mere mortal. I will miss the challenge of the hunt though. Not that a weakling like you could ever last a second against my power." He came closer and a net shot from his palm.

I extended my blinding blue fists and the net vanished when it touched my outstretched fingers. Skulker's eyes widened in shock and before he could react I sprang forward and placed my hands on his armor. At first nothing happened, but then Skulker shrieked like a girl and tried to pull my hands off of his chest.

As soon as his fingers touched mine his hand vanished. He tried vainly with his other arm to push me away but I simply grabbed his hand with mine and felt it vanish underneath my touch. Finally he had enough good sense to turn intangible but to both his surprise and mine I was still able to vaporize his ectosuit.

Then he launched off the ground. I clung on desperately as we soared higher, fifty feet, seventy feet, one hundred, My hands kept burning away the metal and I kept grabbing other handholds that simply faded under my grip. I couldn't stop the anger flowing through me, and therefore I couldn't stop the blue glow that was slowly causing me to fall.

Skulker yelled at me as he tried to shake me off. "Let go whelp before you hit me!" he was panicking as his armor fell apart leaving almost nothing more except for the small section where I knew Skulker's ghost form was.

He was flying too high. Air was incredibly thin and I was gasping for breath. Soon I wouldn't be able to breathe at all and my head would explode from lack of atmosphere. I had always wanted to be an astronaut, just not like this.

My hands met in midair as I the handholds I had on Skulker's armor vanished, and for the second time today I was falling from an impossibly high height. The world rushed past and I felt blood rushing to my head as the ground drew closer. I couldn't scream because the air rushed back into my mouth.

As I plummeted I felt a cold feeling rush through me and realized that I wasn't falling quite so fast. Then I slowed down just enough so that smashing head first into the ground wouldn't kill me. I skidded across the grass and felt blood trickle down from my cut face.

I moaned and rolled over. Sam was sprinting towards me and suddenly stopped and screamed. I looked down at my bloody hands and saw that there was another color besides red. White.

Somehow out of shear desperation I had managed to change into my ghost form. I tried shakily to stand but my body ached and I collapsed just as two rings changed me back into my human form. Sam looked reluctant but walked over to me.

"Danny? Why was your hair white a second ago?" I sighed and pushed my aching form off of the ground.

"I'm part ghost Sam." It was strange how I so easily told her my biggest secret in the world. It was almost like I lacked fear or something…

Sam turned pale. "So you're not only a different Danny from the one I knew, your also half dead?" I nodded and looked around for Skulker just in case he had a backup suit or something. Sam noticed that I wasn't focusing on her and said, "Are you even listening to me Daniel James Masters!"

My concentration was broken and I stared back at her. "First off, yes, I am listening to you, and second, my last name is Fenton, not Masters." Even though I considered this world's Vlad as my dad, the mention of his last name reminded me of how evil Vlad always wanted me for a son.

Sam looked confused. "Would you be related to that billionaire Jack Fenton guy who died a few days ago from a ghost attack?" Her words sunk in and I tried not to let guilt show on my face as I remembered that I was the one who killed Jack and let him fuse with Pariah.

"Uh, sort of." I answered her because it was sort of true. I was related to Jack Fenton, just not the evil one.

"Wow, are you rich?" Sam was staring at me like I first stared at Sam when I found out that she was the great granddaughter of the guy who made the machine that spun cellophane around deli toothpicks.

I answered truthfully this time. "No. Can we stop with the questions? I need to figure out how to save Vlad." Skulker had broken his word, even though he pretended that he didn't, so that meant that Vlad didn't have to worry about Skulker hunting us down if Vlad broke his word.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a small green blob sneaking up on us. I grabbed Skulker and he gave me a dirty look. "Put me down whelp, for I am Skulker, the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter."

I rolled my eyes and said, "I've heard that before Skulker, can't you come up with any new material?" Skulker scowled at me and struggled against my grip. Why didn't he just turn intangible? Then I saw that my hand was flickering slightly and the blue light must have been causing him to remain in my hand.

"Answer some of my questions Skulker and I might let you go." I tried to make my voice as menacing as possible.

"And why would I answer your questions ghost child? You are not the boss of me." My hand glowed brighter and Skulker screamed. "Alright I get your point."

"Okay first, is Vlad okay?" Skulker thought about it for a moment and then said,

"For now child, for now."

I struggled to keep my anger low and not vaporize Skulker. "How did you know that I was going to be in Clockwork's castle when you caught me?"

Now Skulker looked confused. "He told me something strange, like, _"The child will be in the castle because his sense of direction will be in my control." _But the only person who could do that was Pariah Dark and all ghosts know that he's locked in the sarcophagus of forever sleep."

I considered telling him that Doom was part of Pariah Dark but kept my mouth shut anyway. "What is Doom planning?" I asked.

"If I told you that ghost child I would have to know myself. All I know is that it revolves around a creepy time belt that's taken control over some poor sap…" Could he not recognize that the sap looked like me? Not that I was complaining that he didn't recognize my other half or whatever it was.

I was so lost in thought that I didn't notice that I was being pulled into the ground until Sam screamed, "Danny, Your being pulled into the ground!" I looked down and saw that most of my legs and my hands were already underground. I tried to pull myself out but the pressure of the earth was too much.

Then I fell like a stone through the earth. It surrounded my body and once again I held on to Skulker for dear life. If I let go than I would be buried alive. More layers of rock than I could count sailed past, and it made me feel as if I was in Earth Science all over again.

I sailed past rock for what seemed like an hour and when I was just about to give up and let go we entered a huge cavern. Skulker had a tight grip on my arm and didn't turn tangible. Then I remembered that my teacher had told me that the pressure near the center of the earth would be enough to kill a human.

Something else was bugging me about the huge cave. Shouldn't it be pitch black in here? I noticed the green portal in the center of the room and felt my blood freeze. Ember and a few other ghosts flew out of the portal and lifted me off the ground. I struggled and kicked but they overpowered me and before you could say 'Going Ghost' I was in the Ghost Zone.

I stared around and saw Vlad in a net next to a tall glowing figure. The figure's skin had a sickly black color and glowing streaks… suddenly I realized why Skulker hadn't recognized that the person who had been controlled by the time belt looked like me. He didn't look like me anymore.

His smile widened and his eyes glowed an eerie orange red. I looked away in disgust and then glared up at Doom. His black eyes stared down at me as if searching for something. Anger flooded through me and I made sure that my hands weren't touching anything.

"Good to see that you could join us Danny. I can tell by looking at you that you recognize me and that's a good sign for the time belt controlled part of you." I turned and glared at, well, myself, and for a second he seemed genuinely sorry. Then pain filled his eyes and he went back to smirking wickedly.

His metallic voice oozed like tar out of his mouth. "Now it's time for a sacrifice."


	12. Guilt And Pain

_**This story goes to Dizzytech, the first reviewer of the last chapter! This chapter kind of explains some things, but if you don't understand you know what to do.**_

**"Leave the 'harm' part to me. I want you to retrieve the boy. If he's a halfa like the both of you claim, than you will both be free from my service. But if he is not, than you will wish that ghosts could die, because my punishment will be far worse than death."**

**Skulker flew through the portal as fast as he could.**

Vlad glared at me and unfortunately I was forced to glare back. The time belt spoke to me much to my surprise. "Enjoying all of the pain and suffering that you're putting your friends through?"

"You're the one doing it!" I wanted to scream and yell and rip the time belt out of my skin, but all that I could do was simply stare straight ahead into Vlad's icy eyes.

The static sound that I hated filled my head and the time belt hissed, "Oh really? Was I the one who couldn't handle the pain and fight back when your hand was around Vladdie's throat? Was I the one who interrogated him and shattered his hopes by acting pathetically weak? I don't think so."

It was scary how much the time belt sounded like a human being instead of a metallic object. "What? I didn't shatter his hopes!" again I was answered by laughter.

"Are you positive about that Danny? Look at him! It's clear that he's not exactly expecting to live much longer." My head was forced to look down at Vlad. He had stopped glaring at me and now had a sad sort of resigned look on his face. Like someone condemned to the gallows with no hope of escaping…

I didn't answer the time belt's question but I could sense that it was satisfied with the guilt that it brought me. "You know, it's kind of dull being in control all of the time. Why don't you try for a minute or two? I could use the entertainment." Before I could reply I collapsed onto my knees because I wasn't expecting the sudden control over my body.

Vlad glanced at me and then looked away. I half crawled half dragged my heavy metal filled body over to him so that I could whisper. Doom watched all of the ghosts in an irritating omnipotent way and I knew that he would hear me no matter what I did. It was the other ghosts that bothered me.

Again Vlad looked up, but this time he didn't look away. I could see fury in his eyes and for a moment he looked exactly like the Vlad from my world. "Back in control again? I assume that it wasn't because you fought the time belt. Let me guess, you wanted to see how much information you could trick out of me?"

His words stung and even his voice sounded more like evil Vlad's. "No…" I trailed off and Vlad seemed even more furious.

"No… Is that all that you can say? The only person left in the world who could save it is going to be ambushed and kidnapped! A lot of good he'll do down here!" I was just glad that he wasn't half ghost, or he probably would have blasted me by now. His voice softened slightly and so did his frozen eyes. "I've always believed that good would overcome evil in the end, but now…"

Doom's laughter cut him off and I looked up in surprise almost forgetting that he was there. "Good overcoming evil? That's so pathetic Vladimir." Vlad's glare looked like it could kill an elephant and I thought I saw Doom flinch slightly. "Ah Vladimir, it's rather a shame that the wonderful experience of ghost powers was wasted on your idiot opposite."

Vlad raised his eyebrows but said nothing. I on the other hand was confused. Both Vlads seemed to be the same when it came to intellect, but the one in front of me was kind and trusting and human, while the one from my world was sneaky, conniving, and an all around evil half ghost.

"Ever wonder what life would be like for you in his world?" Doom said pointing to me. Vlad didn't answer. "You would be a lonely halfa who used his powers for personal gain and dreams of a family that he can train to be evil." A disgusted look crossed Vlad's face. "In the other world you wanted Danny as your son, Maddie as your wife, and what did you want to do to my opposite? You wanted to kill me Vlad."

"How would you even know any of this?" Vlad asked. He was hiding it very well, but I could tell that he hated Doom for torturing him with facts about other Vlad's life.

"I've been there Vladdie. I'm the one who tricked Danny into coming over to this world in the first place. I've seen the future through Clockwork's portals. I have the power to control where ghosts go. I'm the one who forced Clockwork to give Danny a ghost's sense of direction!"

My head snapped up as I caught the last sentence. "What?" I muttered weakly. Doom laughed his deep booming laugh.

"The time belt's let you off your leash huh? Enjoy your freedom while you can ghost boy. Soon the time belt will incase the very essence of your soul like part of mine was trapped in a sarcophagus. You heard me correctly though. I forced Clockwork to give you a sense of direction so that I could lure you into the trap I had set at Clockwork's castle. It's rather easy to get him to do what you want when you hold the key to destroying time; and him."

I was still confused. Doom seemed to know. "The time belt is a very useful piece of equipment that my idiot opposite somehow managed to create. It's amazing in its self because ghost metal was once thought to be useless to humans. And then you had to go and destroy the most powerful object in the universes."

Vlad still was glaring defiantly at Doom, but I knew that he didn't understand what was happening. Doom sighed in an irritatingly false way. "So I sat in this pit and destroyed all of the demons who dared to mock me, thinking of ways to destroy you, and suddenly one of my servants brings me news of the time belt's remains."

"Skulker himself brought them to me and I could sense the power still left in the scattered ash. The time belt allowed me to escape this place, not physically, but mentally. I could control a few of the weaker ghosts. Clockwork sensed the disturbance I was creating and decided to send you here. But then Clockwork became too weak to remain the guardian of time and he fled to an abandoned realm in the Ghost Zone."

Doom smiled smugly. "But I found him. I took control over him and used most of his energy to give you the delightfully useful power of knowing the Ghost Zone like you've been dead for millennia."

I should have been feeling rage and anger, but all that I felt was disappointed that I had trusted Clockwork so fully. It's strange how much anger I felt but never realized until it was gone. Vlad suddenly smiled like he had realized something.

"Hey, Doom!" he shouted at the huge ghost. Doom had a surprised and annoyed look on his face as he faced Vlad. "If I'm living so badly over in Danny's dimension then that means that you were married to Maddie and had Danny as your son over there. Great tradeoff isn't it. You're stuck in a pit and deader than a doorknob while your opposite has not only a loving wife, but two loving children!"

Doom's eyes burned the blackest black. "My opposite was an idiot who didn't value the things he had in life."

Vlad's smile widened and I wondered what on earth he was planning. "But I didn't Doom! I lived my life and loved my family. If my opposite was as bad as you say then it doesn't matter, because guess what? I'm his opposite. Not him. I have a loving family while you have nothing but a bunch of ghosts who fear you and hate you."

Now I could tell that Doom was seething. I desperately wanted to ask Vlad what he was up to but before Vlad could say anything else to Doom there was a loud yell as someone came through the ghost portal.

The time belt instantly took over and I felt a smirk form on my thin skin. Several ghosts floated through the portal and they were all carrying the struggling human version of me. His eyes scanned the chamber and he saw Vlad and then me. He stared at me and then looked away in disgust.

Other Danny glared fiercely up at Doom. I noticed that he held his hands behind his back like he was hiding something. "Good to see that you could join us Danny. I can tell by looking at you that you recognize me and that's a good sign for the time belt controlled part of you." Doom told the other Danny.

Danny glared at me with so much hatred and anger in his eyes that for a second I was in control and I felt terribly sorry for everything that might have happened to him. It looked like he had been to hell and back. His hair was messed and there was blood from several cuts that were still open. His clothes were also torn in several spots. The time belt instantly took over. Pain filled my consciousness and I barely heard myself say, "Now it's time for a sacrifice."

**This was done a long time ago, but of course was down and I couldn't update. I finally was able to post it after I transfered it to the notebook on my computer. Also, the next chapter is done but I'll wait until people review before posting it.**


	13. Seeing Double

_**Woohoo! Don't ask. I'm hyper at the moment and have decided to dedicate this chapter to Danny0709 because I want to. This chapter starts with good Danny's point of view, but every time you see a line of Xs then the point of view switches. Might be slightly confusing, and it might seem like it's nearing the end of the story, but for those of you who know me well enough nothing's quite exactly what it seems. We last left Danny…**_

"**Good to see that you could join us Danny. I can tell by looking at you that you recognize me and that's a good sign for the time belt controlled part of you." I turned and glared at, well, myself, and for a second he seemed genuinely sorry. Then pain filled his eyes and he went back to smirking wickedly.**

**His metallic voice oozed like tar out of his mouth. "Now it's time for a sacrifice."**

I glared at the hideous ghost who stood smirking at me. My fists clenched and I bit my tongue so that I could control the glow coming from my hands. What did he mean by sacrifice? His burning orange eyes stared into mine and I thought that I saw an almost scared look.

Doom's voice dragged me from my thoughts. "First I must see if he truly is the last piece of the puzzle." One of the ghosts shoved me to the ground and I was about to attack when I heard Vlad's whispered warning.

"Don't go ghost." Before I could figure out what he meant Ember lifted me off the ground. I struggled uselessly but didn't try to use my powers. By now I had learned to trust Vlad- well, this Vlad anyway.

I could feel Ember's grip loosening as she prepared to drop me. If I didn't try to go ghost I would be killed from the fall. "Wait!" someone yelled. Everyone had been focused on Ember, and now everyone stared down at the speaker.

He seemed to be trembling in either fear or pain. My other self stared up at me and I blinked just to make sure that I was seeing his eyes correctly. They were _green. _

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Danny glared at me with a slight hint of confusion in his blue eyes. His fists clenched and his blinding blue eyes seemed to show power beyond humanly possible. I could feel the time belt almost shiver with fear.

Doom spoke and the other Danny jumped like he had been in deep thought. "First I must see if he truly is the last piece of the puzzle." He wanted to make sure that Danny was a halfa. I was suddenly worried as I realized that Danny didn't know that Doom was planning to kill him as soon as he went ghost. If he could.

My other half was staring at Doom and didn't see Ember come up behind him. I wanted to yell, but of course the time belt still was in control. Ember shoved Danny to the ground next to Vlad and Danny tensed like he was ready to attack. Pain shot through me as I fought against the time belt's control.

Strangely enough he didn't do anything and Ember lifted him off the ground. He struggled but didn't change into his ghost form. It was strange watching it all knowing that he and I were once one person.

Ember's grip loosened and I saw that she was about to drop Danny. If he didn't change forms he was going to hit the ground and die, and if he did change forms Doom was going to use him to escape.

My head pounded and it felt like I was being torn apart as I forced my way into control. The time belt screamed, "_What are you doing!" _but I ignored it and focused on beating it for control over my body.

I suddenly felt like I had broken free from chains and I stumbled forward a bit from the surprise regain of control. No one noticed because they were all too busy watching other Danny struggle. My eyes opened even though I hadn't realized they had been closed, and I screamed out the first word that came to mind. "Wait!"

Everyone turned and stared at me. Vlad looked concerned and hopeful at the same time. I could feel the time belt struggling inside me to regain control. Before I knew what I was doing I had flown into the air. All of the ghosts were too surprised to react. Danny especially had a shocked look in his eyes. I stopped and was floating next to Danny

Doom spoke first. "What are you doing?" his voice was calm but was stressed and angry underneath. I said nothing and Doom motioned to Ember with his hand. She let go of Danny and I saw surprise fill his eyes as he plummeted through the air.

I dived and grabbed his wrist. As soon as I did I felt an almost electric shock and feelings flowed through me. Anger, Hatred, Love, Courage, everything that my opposite had had but I didn't flowed through me in an instant. For a moment I felt complete, like I truly was _me _again.

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The other me looked panicked. He floated up off of the ground and over to me. I stared into his pupilless green eyes and felt like I was staring at Danny Phantom. An overwhelming fear was in his eyes and for a moment I felt sorry for him. What had he gone through?

Doom said something but I hadn't been listening. I had been too focused on his eyes. They were full of so much _pain. _I could tell that he was fighting the time belt. I wanted to help, and I was about to say something when, whoopdeedoo, I was sent plunging towards the earth for the _third _time that day. It was getting a little clichéd.

Unlike last time though there was someone to catch me. Time belt Danny's hand grabbed my wrist and I watched as his eyes widened in surprise. I felt odd too. It was almost like I was whole again. Like I could use my ghost powers. I hadn't really noticed how different I had been feeling up until now.

I could almost hear invisible screaming and I looked up and saw that the time belt wrapped around other me's form was pulsing strangely. Suddenly Doom's laughter filled my ears. "So that's the secret between the two Danny's!" Other Danny looked down and I looked up and our eyes met.

His memories flooded through me. Everything. He had fought so hard against the time belt. He had learned things that I hadn't. Vlad's disappointment in him. Clockwork being controlled by Doom. Although his struggle up to this point hadn't been physical, it had been mental. He had been living only as a mind…

I knew everything that he knew. We had been the same person for a split second.

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The time belt shrieked in agony and I felt it writhing under my skin. I could barely feel it though. I stared down into his shining blue eyes and suddenly _was _those shining blue eyes. I felt the pain and emotions he had suffered. Falling from the sky and thinking your life would end. Believing that someone you had loved like a father was dead…

Doom said something and laughed. I knew that that wasn't good, but I still uncovered more memories. Love. That was how he had been kept going. Sam (although she wasn't the Sam from my world) and Vlad had supported him even though he didn't have ghost powers.

And then I realized why I had been forced to drop Danny back when we first had split. The time belt knew that it had created a duplicate of me, and knew that what was happening now could have happened then. We could have fused. We could have stopped it then and there. The only thing was, we _weren't _fusing physically. It was like are minds were the same. It was a lot like how I felt after I changed back into one person after the second ghost catcher incident. Two separate memories of the same time span.

"Enough!" Doom waved his hands and I suddenly was forced to let go of other Danny's wrist. Instead of falling he was surrounded in an eerie black light. A second later I realized that I was too. Doom had us each in some sort of energy shield. He started to move us through the air. To my terror he was moving us towards the large portal.

"I'm so glad that I finally got the both of you together again! You see, neither of you were a true halfa. If you were, then you could simply have walked right through my ghost guards. But together, you're the strongest being in existence. Even more powerful than me." A huge grin spread across his face. "But unlike me you're both mortal; and soon you both will be dead."

**_Cliffies! Their evil, but you can't live without them. I mean, if I ended this chapter like this, "_They escaped somehow and lived happily ever after_," then what's the point of the next chapter? Yeah… I'm really happy right now because my life has taken an unexpected turn for the better! Can't tell you though because if I did it wouldn't be suspenseful! _**


	14. The Evil Continues

_**This is a rewrite chapter. I liked the first part but the second part was too confusing. I apologize to those who have read this before. The last time it is the Time Belt's point of view is where I have rewritten it.**_

_**For those of you who haven't read it yet and are reading this chapter for the first time, Enjoy!**_

**_Okay, how many of you hate me for not posting this sooner? hands shoot up in the air, author grimaces Well, I was lazy okay! No fancy excuses this time, simply the fact that I felt too lazy to write this. That is if you don't include the fact that my floppy disk broke, I was banned from the internet for a week, a more popular story needed to be attended to, I forgot I had written this, and I had to rewrite a lot of it. This is also kind of confusing, but hopefully it will make sense in the end. Same deal as the last chapter, X means that the POV switched from Good Danny to Time Belt Danny. GD is Good Danny and TB is Time Belt. There are six point of view changes, probably the most I've ever done in a chapter. It starts with Good Danny and ends with- well I shouldn't tell you that._**

**GD**

A black glow surrounded me and I was ripped from the other Danny's grasp. I started floating towards what looked like a large version of the ghost portal. Since I had seen all of time belt Danny's memories I now knew that we were both going to be pieces of Doom's escape plan.

"I'm so glad that I finally got the both of you together again! You see, neither of you were a true halfa. If you were, then you could simply have walked right through my ghost guards. But together, you're the strongest being in existence. Even more powerful than me." Doom spoke and I struggled against the black glow weakly. "But unlike me you're both mortal; and soon you both will be dead."

I gasped and struggled harder. After all that I had been through I was _not_ going to give in without a fight. Doom laughed. "You can't escape Daniel." He said. I glared at him but noticed that his attention was focused on my other half.

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**TB**

The time belt had stopped fighting against me. It knew that I would be the one who felt the pain when Doom killed me. I almost felt like I was dying right now. My eyes closed and I struggled against the black glow. Doom said, "You can't escape Daniel." I knew that he was right. I couldn't escape from Doom, and I couldn't escape from the time belt.

My strength left me and I was glad that I was suspended in air or else I would have collapsed. Doom laughed again and I felt cold metal hit my back. Other Danny and I were pushed against the large portal and black ectoplasm held us up. Doom turned and began preparing something sinister looking.

I turned my head and stared at my other self. He still seemed defiant after all that was occurring. We were suspended over a hundred feet off of the ground and I could see all of the ghosts staring at us. Vlad was still in a net on the ground. Even he looked hopeless.

"Hey!" I turned and looked into my other self's blue eyes. "How can you just wait there like that while we're about to be killed?" I said nothing.

"Look, I know that you've been through a lot, but we can't give up!" his eyes looked pleading. "Everyone's depending on us. If Doom kills us and frees himself from this place then the world will be destroyed. You and I are the only ones with the ability to stop him!"

I glared at him. How could he still believe that we could stop Doom? He didn't even have any powers.

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**GD**

He still didn't answer me. Instead he glared at me. Something was bothering me though. Doom had separated us before I could see the most recent events in other me's memory. Was it possible that the same thing happened to him and he didn't know about my new power?

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**TB**

He grinned suddenly. I simply stared at him. What now?

"You want to escape from Doom and the Time Belt right?" I nodded. What other choice was there? It's not like I wanted to be murdered.

"I need your help. There is absolutely no way I can do this alone." I sighed, although with my voice it sounded like gears whirring.

"Fine." I said quietly.

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**GD**

That was what I wanted to hear.

I glared at Doom who was still stupidly working on something. Apparently he had a few similarities to my dad. Then I closed my eyes and concentrated. I felt the glow return to my hand. My eyes sprang open. The strange black glow that was holding me to the portal started to fade.

Suddenly I felt myself falling. With one hand I faded a handhold into the smooth metallic surface of the huge portal. Then I let the blue light fade. Clinging one handed to metal that's more then one hundred feet in the air, I turned and made my left hand glow.

I reached up and destroyed the glow around other Danny. He gasped and then floated in place. Then he seemed to realize what was happening and grabbed my arm so that he could avoid my glowing fist.

Doom chose that moment to turn around.

In his hands he held something that looked like a larger version of the Ghost Catcher. He smirked. "Nice try you two. Unfortunately you've been caught, and this," he held up the Ghost Catcher, "will fuse you both back into the halfa that I need." He pretended to look regretful. "The time belt will still be inside you of course, and it will be a terrible ordeal to lose it," he smiled wider, "but I think I'll get over it"

Before either of us could react Doom moved forward and pushed the ghost catcher through us.

Pain erupted through my body as I felt myself being fused to my other self's metallic form. I struggled against it. Somehow I knew that if I fused, then I would never be able to escape the Time Belt's control. It would destroy me from the inside out, while Doom destroyed me from the outside in.

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**TB**

The time belt was screaming in agony as we fused. It was forcing me away from my other half. It didn't want to fuse. If the time belt didn't want something, that meant that I did.

I felt my other half ripping away from me. He didn't want to fuse either. The Time Belt kept trying to control me, but I fought it. This was my last chance for freedom. If I didn't fuse, it was only a matter of time before the Time Belt would have total control over me.

Maybe it was fear that helped me fight the Time Belt, but I thought that it was something else. I _needed _to fuse with my other half. We needed each other, just like we needed our ghost half. The agony I was feeling was incredible, and I was about to give up hope.

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**Danny Phantom (author's note: Bwahaha!)**

Suddenly I felt myself being pulled backwards. Again I was fusing with my other self. Panic filled me and I struggled against it. Why was he betraying me?

Strength and emotions flowed through me. I even felt the familiar presence of my ghost half return. This was it. I was about to be fused completely with the Time Belt. I tried to fight, but I could feel the pain of my other half, and then it was _my _pain too.

The Time Belt screamed in his- our- _my _head. I felt like I was dying, almost like I had felt when Jack had tried to steal my soul. I could feel it consuming me, eating me, but I knew that there was still hope. I fought it with all of my renewed strength, forced it from my body, erased it from my mind. All of the emotions that both of my halfs had had were back, and so was my ghost half. And like the Time Belt had said to the half it was controlling, there wasn't enough room for my human half, ghost half, and the Time Belt. One of them was going to be separate…

I burst out of the other side of the ghost catcher. Everything that had happened since Doom had turned around had all taken place in the span of one second. I realized that I was floating and looked down to see myself in my ghost form. Then I realized that I was holding someone's arm.

"Don't hurt me!" the someone said. I stared at him and realized that it was Daniel Masters. Don't ask me how it happened, but somehow he was back. Then it hit me. The half of me that wasn't controlled by the Time Belt had been fused with Danny Masters, and just like there wasn't enough room for the Time Belt, there wasn't enough room for the other Danny either.

I was finally Danny Fenton again.

The small moment of happiness I had felt when I had realized that I was me again soon faded as I remembered that I was in the Ghost Zone with an evil ghost who wanted to use me as a sacrifice so that he could get out into the real world. I glared up at Doom.

Doom looked surprised, and almost scared. "Where's the -" he was cut off as a loud thud echoed through the room. "Time Belt." He finished.

Metallic whirring filled the room. I watched in terror as a golden skeleton pushed itself up off of the ground. Its eyes were an evil orange red again. There was no human part of it left. It was just a skeletal mass of metal.

I had succeeded in escaping the Time Belt, but it had still reached its goal. It was still alive.

You could see gears turning as it spoke. Its voice creaked and sounded like screams of pain. "Finally my own body. And this time there will be no human emotions that can stop me."

_**See, just when you think that Danny's doomed, he escapes, and then is put in another life threatening situation! Yay drama! So did you all understand this? If not you know what to do. Or at least I hope you do…**_


	15. Timed Doom

"What's that thing?" Danny Masters said. I said nothing, still too shocked. No matter how hard I tried, the time belt never died. I saved Sam from it, and thought it would be gone forever, then ended up being controlled by it myself, and then managing to force it from my body, and still it was here. That thing was still trying to destroy mankind.

I felt my eyes flash in anger. Why couldn't it just die already? It smirked up at me as if it had read my mind and I shuddered. If that thing could control my powers when it was in Sam, what could it do now that it had its own body?

Doom watched the scene unfold with a blank face. "I'm getting rather tired of these complications." He said mildly. Then he turned to me and other Danny. "Hmm, and even you seem to be experiencing some trouble." Then an insane grin split his face. "This should be interesting."

The time belt pulsed and then walked towards a stunned Skulker. It reached out a golden hand and placed it on his chest. It glowed brighter and then Skulker collapsed, his eyes black and the fire missing from his head.

I watched in horror as the time belt smiled and said, "Ghost energy, how tasty." Then it glared up at me. "But I wonder how a halfa's soul would taste?" He floated slowly off of the ground, an inch, two inches, and then he was soaring towards me. Doom didn't look happy.

Suddenly the time belt was encased in a black orb. "The halfa is mine." Doom said angrily. I watched them both and could feel other Danny's wrist shaking in my hand. "I need him so that I can escape this place!"

The time belt calmly absorbed the orb. "You can not stop my appetite. I will consume the half ghost. If I have to steal your soul first I will."

I dived and landed on the ground next to Vlad. Other me looked scared and hid behind his father.

Doom's eyes burned black. "I'd like to see you try." He hissed. Doom brought up both of his hands and lit them with black fire.

"Fine." Tentacles slithered out of the time belt and glowed brightly. Then they burst into green flame. "I will."

Doom brought his hands together and a wave of jet black fire engulfed the time belt. Finally it stopped and the time belt appeared unhurt. It smirked and said, "Nice trick." The time belt flew at Doom and wrapped its metal tentacles around Doom's arm. Doom grabbed the tentacles and swung the time belt into a cavern wall with a loud crash.

I bent down and ripped the net off of Vlad. All of the other ghosts had fled. Vlad stood and hugged both me and his son. "I thought that I would never see you two again." I smiled and pulled out of his embrace. Then I turned and looked back at the battle.

The time belt pulled itself from the rock. Doom glared at it and shot beams from his eyes, knocking it back into the wall. Again Doom's fist lit up and he slammed it into the time belt. He pulled back and was about to punch it again when it launched itself off of the wall and stuck its fiery arms into Doom's injured spot. The spot where I had broken his armor and where the skin was green.

Doom screamed in pain and yanked the time belt off of him. The wound burst into flames and Doom slammed the time belt to the floor like a football player would do with a football after a touchdown. He tried to stop the flames, but they began to grow larger. Doom's eyes filled with fury and he began to stomp on the time belt.

Stalactites began to fall from the ceiling because of the vibrations, and I grabbed Vlad and other me's arms and turned us all intangible.

The time belt moved out of the way looking terribly dented. Doom continued screaming in agony and then split into four ghosts. Every one of them blasted the time belt with their arms and eyes. Black fire engulfed most of the cavern, and even though I was intangible I could still feel the terrible cold heat.

The flames cleared, and the time belt looked very melted. Then to my horror, and probably Doom's too, it reformed back into it's human like shape. Doom's duplicates came back to him, and he glared disbelieving at the time belt.

"How do you plan on killing me now?" it said smugly. Doom seemed to grow several times larger, and his fury was almost tangible.

"I have been killed before, once as a human and once as a ghost. You can't stop me. I am immortal!" The room shook and Doom screamed like a demon from hell, which, I considered, he just might be.

The light in the room vanished and it was replaced with black, not black like the night, black how kids who are afraid of the dark picture it, black like the grim reaper's cloak, black like the inside of a coffin buried six feet underground. Black like death.

And from the blackness a voice echoed, the voice of this world's Jack Fenton screaming out through the darkness. It echoed around the cavern and seemed like it would never stop. "Help me!" It screamed.

The voice of Pariah Dark followed. "It's too much, too much power…"

And then green flame erupted and ripped through the darkness like it was tissue paper. A pillar of fire over a hundred feet tall. Then the pillar moved and I realized that it was Doom. He was burning alive from the wound the time belt had given him, and there was no way to stop it.

For a moment it stared at me and I saw Jack Fenton's face in it, glaring at me scornfully for ruining its life, accusing me for its terrible pain. Then it changed to Pariah's face, scarred and angry, somehow knowing that I had helped Jack achieve his goal to fuse with him, but not knowing exactly how.

In its hands it held the time belt. The faces faded and simply became two black eyes and a set of dagger teeth. "DIE!" It hissed, its voice like crackling fire, and suddenly it exploded.

I was launched backwards even though I was intangible, and I somehow managed to hold on to Vlad and my other self. Terrifying heat engulfed us. I felt my grip loosening on Vlad's arm and gritted my teeth. I pulled him closer. Everything was green fire, and I was suddenly reminded of what it felt like when I had the ghost portal accident.

The flames died suddenly. A solitary figure emerged from the smoke.

_**Bwahahahahaha! I think I'm getting rather good at these cliffhangers. **_


	16. Winning And Losing

_**It's long overdue, but I had to think up a good twist. I'm pretty sure I did.**_

I was doomed. All of us, Vlad, other Danny, and me. Whoever was coming from the smoke was the survivor, the stronger of the two, and if I couldn't beat it, than the world would be lost. I seemed to be fighting for that a lot lately. My legs shook as I stood, and I hoped that I had enough energy left to at least put up a fight.

Two red eyes shone out of the smoke, and then the figure stepped out. It smiled somehow, which would have been hard for it since half of its face was melted off. "Ahh, Daniel," it hissed, its voice crackling with electricity, "Now there is no one who can save you from your fate."

It was the time belt. Of course it was. This whole adventure had started with that evil piece of metal and now it would end with it. I couldn't help but watch as its metal face slowly reformed and a full sadistic grin spread across its features. The dim light in the cavern reflected off the metallic skin, and I couldn't move as it slowly came closer. I was being hypnotized…

Suddenly a hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me backwards away from the evil creature. I snapped out of my trance and backed farther away. The time belt stopped and grinned evilly again. It knew that there was nowhere I could escape to.

"Danny, we need to get out of here." Vlad said, grabbing my arm instead of my shoulder. He tried to pull me towards the portal where other Danny was waiting but I phased out of his grip.

"No." I said, never taking my eyes off of the time belt. "I can't run away from that thing anymore. I need to fight."

Vlad grabbed my arm again and forced me to face him. "Listen to me Daniel," he said, using my real name to get my attention, "You can't be the hero all of the time. That monster is invincible, and it clearly wants to fight you. It can't escape this place, but we can. We can leave it trapped down here where it can't harm anyone." His eyes were pleading.

I nodded once and walked over to the portal. Vlad followed and I grabbed his arm and other Danny's. I glanced behind me at the time belt. It stayed where it was, smiling just as widely as ever. It knew that I'd be back. I turned the three of us intangible and flew us through the portal.

We flew quickly through the layers of rock. They didn't say anything and I didn't either. I was too busy trying to concentrate on keeping us all intangible. Finally we arrived back on the surface.

"Thank you for saving us… and for realizing that it was time to retreat." He smiled, but I didn't return the smile.

"Don't thank me yet." I said, before phasing into the ground. The last thing I saw was Vlad looking almost sad, like he expected me to do this.

The rock sped past until I finally was back in the dark cavern with the portal in it. The portal that would lead me to the cave the time belt was still in. I floated in place for a while. If I lost then I would never see anyone I knew ever again. My parents, Jazz, my friends. Sam… we had just started to reveal our true feelings for each other. Yeah, that's nice, 'Sam, I finally told you that I love you and now I have to go get myself killed'.

But I had been in situations like this before. The Ghost King, Dan Phantom, Doom. I could have died many times, but I didn't. I always lived to tell Tucker and Sam about it. Who would tell them? In their world I just mysteriously disappeared. All of those other times I had someone to support me. Now I was alone.

I didn't have to go through with this. I could just fly away and never look back. But I knew that that… thing would escape eventually. Besides, that was what a hero is all about, right? Facing danger with little hope of surviving. I flew through the portal.

"Welcome back." The crackling voice said. "I'm surprised you came so quickly. I would have thought that your friend would have held you up more." I glared at it. One of the few inventions my dad made just had to be evil.

"You wanted a fight, and you've got one."

It gave me a look of fake disappointment. "What, no witty banter? I've heard so much of you from Skulker. Aren't you going to call me something like 'Oversized Accessory, or Metallic Mistake'? I suppose it doesn't really matter. Tell me Daniel, what exactly is your purpose of seeking a fight with me?"

I kept my muscles tense, waiting for it to attack me. "I won't let you hurt any more people." It laughed.

"Who have I hurt? If it wasn't for me you never would have discovered this universe. If I hadn't taken over your friend Samantha then you never would have admitted your feelings for her. If I hadn't taken over you then you never would have defeated Doom, and since you came back I didn't have to go through with my plan to destroy your future"

This surprised me, and I almost let my guard down. "What?"

"You left your safe world to come here again. Why? Because your future was to become an insane person. Doom had been using me to achieve this, but now that I have my own body I can destroy time myself. Even if you had tried to run I would still have my revenge on you for trying to destroy me."

Anger flowed through me, and I felt my hands glow with power. I couldn't stand to listen to it anymore. My feet left the ground and I launched myself straight at the time belt. Green ectobeams shot from my hands and hit the time belt dead on, forcing it back. "I guess I'll just have to make sure you're gone for good this time.

It fired its own blast and I just barely managed to put up a shield. Still I was knocked back almost to the wall. It fired several more blasts and I avoided all of them. It was almost like it was purposely missing. Then I realized why. I was cornered.

"Isn't this wonderful? I will absorb your ghost energy and be able to escape this place, and you will finally be put out of your misery." It slowly came closer. My back pressed against the stone wall, and I tried to phase through it but nothing happened. The whole chamber was ghost proof.

I continued firing blasts at it, but nothing was affecting it. A slow crackling laughter filled the air as it continued to come closer, less than a yard away from me now. It wasn't in a hurry. I continued to fire at it. Tentacles came towards me, and I could feel my powers being drained from me through the air. Last chance… I took a deep breath, taking in as much air as I could, and used my ghostly wail.

The time belt was launched backwards. There was a loud boom as it hit the wall on the other side of the cavern, and stalactites started to fall from the ceiling. I turned intangible just as a particularly large one fell through me. The time belt stood up and smirked at me from across the cavern, and intense hatred filled me as I flew towards it.

Before I could even get close a golden tentacle shot out of it and grabbed my by my neck.

"How easy it would be to kill you right now. Perhaps I will." I couldn't breathe, and the tentacle was getting tighter and tighter. My hands instinctively tried to pull the tentacle off of my neck, and they were glowing dark blue. The metal faded away.

I fell to the ground, gasping for air, and I glanced at the time belt. For the first time it had a different look on it's face. Anger.

"How could you develop a power that I did not know about?" It asked, more to itself than me.

"You don't seem to understand that good always triumphs over evil." I said, standing up. It glared at me and more tentacles flew towards me. I held out my hands and caught the tentacles, vaporizing them one after the other. My power had been magnified now that I was one person instead of two, and I felt my whole body become surrounded in the blue light.

The time belt tried to stop me but I simply walked through all of its arms, disintegrating every one I touched. As I came closer the look on its face changed from anger to panic. It knew it was losing.

Then I had it in my hands, burning away its metallic body. There was no screaming or sounds of pain. Just a faint crackling sound as it faded into nothing. But it wasn't silent yet. "How are you planning on getting back to your world?" It said in a surprisingly strong voice. "Clockwork is too weak, and without me you're stuck. Are you going to live here as an outcast? A stranger to this universe?"

I clenched my teeth, trying to hold my concentration.

"Your family has no idea that you even started this adventure. Jasmine will have to tell them your secret, and then your parents will know the truth that you never were brave enough to tell them." My power was fading "And what about Samantha? She'll think you ran away, right after you had become a couple too. What a shame." The blue light stopped as my anger faded away.

Metallic tentacles instantly slammed into me and sent me backwards. "Emotion makes you weak, Daniel. That is why I will always be infinitely stronger than you, because metal feels nothing. I'll kill you, and then you won't have to worry about living in your world _or _this one."

I balled my hands into fists and felt them glow with renewed strength. "You're wrong. Without love I never would have been able to save Sam. Without hatred I would have stopped fighting you long ago. And without anger I wouldn't be able to do this." The room lit up blue and I attacked the time belt again. This time I didn't stop. It felt like hours that I was burning away at the metal, but it was less than a minute.

The last thing to disappear was its twisted face. "You're going to regret this Daniel. Till the day you too vanish from this earth you'll wish that you hadn't interfered." A strange sensation flowed through me.

Then suddenly it was gone. The evil being that had led me into so much danger was finally gone. Relief flooded through me and I fell to my knees. I didn't need to fight anymore. Slowly I got up and left through the portal. Hopefully Vlad hadn't given up hope on me yet.

When I finally was back on the surface there was no one around. Maybe I had come up in the wrong place? I looked around for any signs of life and found none. Suddenly I tripped over something and fell.

At first I thought it was a rock, but it was so covered in weeds that it was impossible to tell. Curiosity got the better of me and I pulled weeds away so I could look at the rock. My blood froze when I realized it was a tombstone. The words were faded, but I could still make them out.

_Here lies Danny Phantom_


	17. Future Problems

_**This chapter is for Samantha Seldowitz for guessing what the heck was going on! **_

_Here lies Danny Phantom_

I stared at the engraving, unable to believe what I was seeing. Plants covered more words, and I pulled them away so that I could continue reading.

_He was a hero from another world who died saving this one._

That was it. No names, dates, or anything. I backed away from the tombstone. This couldn't be real. Was I dead? Two rings changed me back into Danny Fenton. Okay, so I wasn't dead. Was it a trick? I put my hand out and touched the stone, hoping that it would be plastic, but it wasn't. The words were faded from the weather, so it would have had to have been up for awhile.

Where did the grave come from? The only people who knew about me were this world's Sam, Vlad, Jazz, and other me. It must have been Vlad. But why had he given up on me? I had only been fighting the time belt for ten, maybe twenty minutes. Wait… the time belt. It had said that I would regret destroying it, and then that strange feeling went through me. I could be ten or twenty years in the future!

I had to find someone.

Amity Park was unrecognizable as I flew towards it. I froze in midair and stared at the city in shock. Everything was different. It looked like a place from some sci-fi movie. "Hey move it!" someone yelled behind me. I spun around and saw a car flying towards me, and dodged just in time.

How long had I been gone? I turned invisible and landed in a safe place before changing back into my human form. As I walked along the sidewalk people stopped to stare at me. I couldn't even lie low as Danny Fenton now, thanks to my clothes. I avoided their eyes and kept walking until I finally saw something that looked familiar.

The Masters' Works sign was still there. In fact the whole building looked exactly the same as it had been the last time I had seen it. I ran up to the door and considered just walking in, but that probably wasn't the best idea since everything had changed, so I knocked.

A tall thin man with black hair came to the door. He glared at me and said, "Yes, this is the previous home of Vlad Masters, world famous ghost hunter, no he no longer resides here, and no we do not give out free tours." Then he slammed the door in my face

I blinked and stood on the doorstep. That wasn't what I was expecting. I knocked again, hoping that whoever he was would give me a chance to talk. The door opened again. "Look, I don't know who you are or what you want, but I'm busy. Let me get back to my boring, forever living in the shadow of my father, life."

He was about to close the door again when someone else spoke from inside the house. "Danny? Who's at the door?" I almost answered, but stopped as the words sunk in. The guy was me? He was this dimension's Danny? A pretty red headed woman came to the door. Jazz?

"Hello young man, what can we do for you? I'm sorry my brother's a little bitter. He doesn't like it when I come over for surprise visits." I glanced at her brother, other Danny I guess, and he was still glaring at me. I don't think Jazz visiting was all that he was mad at.

"I need to talk to Vlad." I said, noticing that other me's glare increased. "It's really important."

"Look you little brat, I told you that Vlad doesn't live here anymore. You can't talk to him if he's not here. Now get off of my property!" He was going to slam the door again when Jazz caught his arm.

"Danny, you can't let your temper get so out of hand." She said. Other Danny pulled out of her grip and stormed off into the house. Jazz almost went after him but then said to me, "If you're having a ghost problem than I should probably come help you. What did you need to talk to my father about?"

I wasn't sure if I could trust her or not. The last time I had seen her had been when she was trying to destroy me. "I just… really wanted to see Vlad Masters. I- uh, my dad, knew him and I wanted to ask him some questions."

Somewhere inside the house it sounded like something was smashed. Jazz flinched. "I'm sorry, but my father has retired from ghost hunting and doesn't want anyone talking to him." There was another sound, only this time it sounded like glass shattering. "Goodbye, thanks for visiting." She closed the door and I could hear her running towards the source of the sound.

What the heck was going on? I was in the future, Vlad was missing, and no one was going to help me. There must be a way to find Vlad. I looked up at the building looming over me and decided that I was going to get in there one way or another. I ran behind the building, turned into my ghost form, and went inside.

The house was a lot more futuristic on the inside than the outside. I turned invisible and started to look around when there was a loud crash and a yell from the kitchen. Other Danny came into the room I was floating in and Jazz followed. "Leave me alone Jazz. If I want to destroy priceless objects than I will." He knocked a vase over to demonstrate.

Jazz caught the vase and set it back on a table. "Just because you don't like dad doesn't mean that you can take it out on your house!"

He turned around and glared furiously at her. "Since when has this been my house? The mayor made it a landmark so I can't change the outside even though the only thing older than this building is the school, I can't move away because then no one would take care of this place, people constantly come here asking for Vlad, and you're always visiting just to make sure I haven't gone crazy yet!"

"It's not dad's fault." she said. "He just wanted to help people and stop ghosts from attacking. If he hadn't then a lot of innocent people would have gotten hurt. You know that he didn't do anything to hurt you." Other Danny said nothing, and Jazz tried to put her hand on his shoulder. He pulled away.

"You're right. It wasn't dad's fault that the evil ghost boy came here and ruined my life." I held in a surprised gasp. "Ever since he vanished twenty years ago dad hasn't stopped feeling sorry for that jerk. The freak came here, made Sam fall in love with him and hate me for some reason, destroyed part of the house, traumatize me by kidnapping me and taking me to some huge ghost, and worst of all he made himself seem like a great big hero to my dad, so dad was constantly trying to make me act like that ghost mutt!"

I had to bite my tongue to stop from saying anything. The worst part was that Jazz seemed to agree with him. Other Danny yelled furiously and slammed his fist into a wall near where he and Jazz had been standing.

A vase that was on a shelf above their heads started to rock back and forth and fell off of the shelf towards Jazz's head. Jerks or not I couldn't let them get hurt. I dove forward and grabbed the vase before it hit anyone. Unfortunately I had to turn visible to do it.

Suddenly I had two guns pointing right at my head.


End file.
